


Punch from the Past

by Spotteh



Series: Punch from the Past [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2017-12-22 08:15:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 32,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/910941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spotteh/pseuds/Spotteh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>In which Karkat is a blithering idiot and the author is rearranging chapters. If you're already reading this story, don't worry about this. It's just the same chapters you've already read.</p>
          </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Where the heck was he? Fuck if he knows! One minute Karkat is sitting at a computer on a meteor in outer space arguing with Terezi and the next he's in the middle of a fucking desert with Sollux, Kanaya, and Nepeta. How the fuck was that even possible? She was dead!! The four of them had been wandering through the desert, looking for some sign of civilization, and he was just about ready to do a fucking pirouette of the handle bars. Where the fuck were they!?!  
The flickering light of a campfire stopped him from exploding into a rather pointless rant. Nepeta was the first to respond to the acknowledgment of life. Jumping up an down she practically purred, "Look guys! People! Lets go say hi! Maybe they'll help us!" and with that, she zoomed of towards gog knows what. Or as she would put it, *ac ran towards the new camp fire at an amazing pace! Hopefurry, these new trolls would be nice and she would make some new furiends!*  
Karkat, however, disapproved of the idea. "FUCK. NEPETA! WAIT! WE DON'T KNOw-" his screaming came to a stop when he realized that it was too late. Fantastic. Sollux sighed beside him. Apparently he was thinking the same thing.  
"She Has The Right Idea." Kayana spoke up, earning a specultive look from the boys. "We Should Follow Her Anyways. Though Perhaps With Less Enthusiasm." The jade blood set off after the hyper cat girl at her own graceful pace. Begrudgingly, Karkat and Sollux followed.  
Nepeta stood just outside the light of the campfire, her mouth wide and gaping. Kanaya and Sollux followed her example beautifully, as the three stared at the four trolls in front of them. Karkat just flew off the handle bars like a firecracker. It took a few seconds to comprehend what he was seeing but after that he was running around kicking up sand and screaming profanities, some rather creative for the hot headed munchkin. The other four adult trolls stared back, with only slightly less wonder. The four looked almost exactly like the younger trolls. They shared the same horns, the same fangs, the same hairstyles; all respectively of course. Before the four young trolls were figures of legends: the Dolorosa, the Psiioniic, the Disciple, and the Signless themselves. An unsaid question passed between all the trolls, old and young: What the hell?  
Karkat return to the circle of bizare broke the silence. "HOW IS THIS FUCKING POSSIBLE!?" he screeched. "I MEAN. YOU-" He jabbed a finger at the Signless. "AND YOU'RE-" his finger swept across the other adults. "YOU WERE ONE THING BUT-" he turned to the still shocked Nepeta before turning for another round of flipping out.  
Sollux grabbed the spazzing troll to stop him. "kk. chiill."  
Of course, Karkat being Karkat, he grabbed Sollux by the shoulders and started shaking him. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHO THE FUCK THEY ARE!?!" A sharp smack gave him back his senses.  
"of cour2e II know who they are. II thiink we all know who everybody ii2. even np." And indeed she did, though she and her ancestor were locked in an open mouth stare down it seemed. Karkat chilled. If only a little bit.  
Naturally, Kanaya and her ancestor were the first to actually compose themselves.  
The Dolorosa started. "Hello..." she said cautiously. Between her current life with the Signless and the unbelievable amount of weirdness going on, she had every right to be cautious. Kanaya mirrored her wary look.  
"Good Night." she said, just as careful as her ancestor. "We Are In A Bit Of A Situation. I Think That You Can Help Us." she said cooly. The Dolorosa narrowed her eyes, ever cautious.  
Most of the trolls had calmed down and were at least accepting some of what was going on. The two Leiojons decided this was a pristine moment for a hug. The two lunged at each other and landed in a pile of hugs, purrs, and compliments. This warranted a glance from all the trolls, though most just shrugged it off as Nepeta/the Disciple just being Nepeta/the Disciple.  
"We Would Be Happy To Help Of Course." the Dolorosa said back. And she meant it. They would help these young trolls. But she needed to make sure her little rag tag family would be safe. "But Why Do You Think We In Particular Can Help You?" she challenged just a bit. Family first.  
The Disciple sat up, Nepeta snug in her arms. Together the two stared at the Dolorosa with those big cat eyes strategically designed to make you give them what they wanted. Nepeta's said 'won't you please help us?' While the Disciple's pleaded, 'Can I keep her?'  
Karkat shuffled uncomfortably. He was a truly crappy leader. He was letting Kanaya deal with this rather than himself. But ever since he first got here, he felt eyes burning into him. Every time he looked up, his eyes led him to the Signless. The Signless sat on a dry piece of wood, unmoving, shrouded in his cloak which covered his face as well. Karkat couldn't see his ancestors eyes but he knew their candy red stare was glued on him. He was starting to feel like Equius.  
With one swift motion, the Signless stood, drawing all eyes to him. "We are helping them." He announced in a strong voice. "No questions needed." This was directed at the Dolorosa. It was very obvious that the discussion was over. He gave a nod to the Disciple who immediately detached herself from her ancestor. The two trolls walked away into the shadows, no doubt going to talk about the newcomers. Karkat stared after them, a ball of ice in his stomac. That was his ancestor. He was supposed to finish what that troll had started. It felt impossible. How was he supposed to do that? He couldn't even keep a moiraillagence going. How could he ever dream of becoming that?  
Conversation had started again and Kanaya and Nepeta were sitting in the sand around the campfire with the Dolorosa and the Psiioniic. Karkat planted himself between Sollux and Kanaya, keeping away from Nepeta like he usually did. The initial shock of everything was dying down and Karkat felt his face fall into the familiar scowl he almost always wore. The Psiioniic spoke up this time. "You seem two know who we are." The yellow blood smirked a bit and Karkat felt his face heat up, causing his scowl to deepen. "But who are you?" The lanky troll crossed his arms in front of his chest, awaiting an answer.  
Sollux met his ancestors question. "II'm 2ollux. That's Kanaya." he jabbed a thumb in her direction. "Over there's Nepeta." his other hand motioned towards the olive troll who waved in responce. "And thiis moron is Karkat." His thumb redirected itself to point at the nubby troll.  
"SPITSPONGE."  
"Nook2ucker."  
The Psiioniic broke into a laugh. A glare from the Dolorosa silenced them.  
"It Is A Pleasure To Meet You All." The Dolorosa said, a new warmth in her voice. She had decided to trust the young trolls. They were so much like themselves it almost felt wrong not too. The younger trolls noted the change and the conversation settled into light subjects and jokes as the night widdled away. 

 

69~69~69~69~69~69

Karkat twisted and turned in his sleep. They were sleeping in one of the extra tents that the Dolorosa carried with her. Just in case situations like this popped up. The problem was, he couldn't sleep. He had been lying in a weird state between awake and asleep for hours now while Sollux twitched beside him in his own private nightmare. Finally he gave up. Karkat stood up and started pacing in the small area. The girls were in a seperate tent and he wasn't really worried abut Sollux. From their time on the meteor, he had figured out that Sollux qualified as dead when he was asleep. Something just kept nagging and nagging in the back of his head. Like he had forgotten something really important.  
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flicker of red. But when he turned there was nothing. He growled in irritation and Sollux flipped onto his side, giving Karkat more room. He went back to pacing and when he turned again, his face went pale. In front of him stood Dave. At least a phantom image of him. The human was barely visible in the darkness of the tent, and flickering, as though the screen was glitching. Dave opened his mouth to say something and was actually easier to hear than Karkat thought he would be.  
"... and I... fucked up... we... you ha..." He was loud enough to be heard but it was as if this signal wasnt working. Everything was choppy and incomplete. Everything except the last two words.  
"Get Aradia."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Karkat is a blithering idiot and the author is rearranging chapters. If you're already reading this story, don't worry about this. It's just the same chapters you've already read.

The next evening was weird to say the least. Karkat had left the tent early and had been avoiding everyone who came near him. Whenever one of his friends managed to pin him down long enough to talk to him, he usually went on some loud pointless rant filled with insults only he could come up with. His late day meeting with Dave had scared the living grub manure out of him. He barely even noticed how quiet Nepeta had been all evening, something very out of character for her.   
The sneaky cat caught her prey as he was pulling down a tent. A tug on his sleeve made Karkat jumped. Part of him thought it was Dave again, but when he turned around it was just Nepeta. Her thin face was edged with worry. "NEPETA. WHAT DO YOU WANT? IM BUSY." he turned back to what he was doing. She was probably just there to ask what was going on like everyone else.  
"Karkitty. I'm worried. What if Equius is here too?" she said, moving to his side in an attempt to look him in the eye.   
"SO WHAT IF HE IS? I MEAN. ISNT THAT A GOOD THING? IT MEANS HE'S ALIVE AGAIN." One side of the tent fell down and he leaned down to pick it up. He watched Nepeta's blue shoes shuffle a bit.   
"But he's my meowrail. He needs me!" she continued. "He could be in real big trouble!"   
Karkat sighed and rose to his feet. "I KNOW MOIRAILS ARE IMPORTANT BUT WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO LOOK FOR HIM. WE NEED TO FINd..." he trailed off. He still hadn't told anyone what he had seen and really didn't want to. They'd think he was going crazy. He thought he was going crazy. When he risked a glance at Nepeta he nearly took a step back, she was glaring at him so intensely.  
"We don't have time fur my meowrail?" her voice was rising quickly. Karkat vaguely remembered a conversation with Terezi. She had told him that Nepeta was actually the more unstable troll in their moiraillagence. And now she was without her moirail. Shit.  
A voice behind him pulled his attention away from Nepeta. "What's going on?" It was the Signless. Nepeta's loud voice was drawing attention. The Disciple was close behind her mate but neither of their arrivals stopped the cat troll. If anything it egged her on.  
"WE DON'T EVEN KNOW IF HES HERE." he tried to reason with her. His hands came up defensively.   
"Oh. So just beclaws he's not right here in furont of your face, he can't be here. Well guess what Karkat, I'm here! So he must be here too! You've heard stories of how this place is! And my meowrail is out there, gog knows where with gog knows who!" She was leaning in so close all he could see was her eyes. She looked like she was about to rip into him. For the first time ever, he was actually scared of Nepeta Leijon. By now she was practically shrieking at him and the rest of the trolls had gathered to watch the spectical. Nepeta stopped yelling for a moment and everything was silent. Karkat was too shocked for his think pan to work. Nepeta Leijon had just yelled at him. The olive troll turned to walk off and Karkat physically sighed. Just when he thought he was in the clear, she whipped around and hissed to him. "Its one thing when you treat me badly. I don't really care what you think of me. Not anymore. But when you treat my meowrail like shit. That's an entirely different matter." This time she really did storm off. He didn't think anyone else had heard the last bit and he felt absolutely terrible. He never thought that Nepeta would ever yell at him, cuss at him. She was just so sweet and innocent and obsessed with him. It hit him harder than he thought it would.   
The Psiioniic broke the silence. "2he really ii2 liike you." he muttered. After that, the soft sounds seemed deafening. The Signless shot him a look and the Disciple moved in the direction Nepeta had headed. "I'll go talk to her." She announced before following after her descendant with long strides. It didn't take long until she was clear of the blast zone.   
The two jade bloods set to ushering the others away, giving them jobs to do, to get their mind off of the scene Nepeta had just caused. A hand on his shoulder brought him back. It was the Signless. "We should probably have a talk as well." Karkat just nodded and let the older troll lead him away from the camp, away from Nepeta.

-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->

Grey eyes peered through a borrowed telescope. Through it the young troll could see small figures gathered around another two. He had been watching one figure in particular. The one with a bright blue cat hat. Equius lowered the telescope as a larger troll came to stand behind him. Their features mirrored one another, saves few differences. However it was still blattenly obvious that these two were somehow related. The adult spoke up first. "We are trailing them." Equius stiffened. He knew what his ancestor had done and what those words meant. "There is a trap set for them at the next town. We will catch them there."   
The two stared across the horizon where the opposing camp was being taken apart. Equius could just make out the trolls on the dessert. The cliff they sat on almost gave them a bird's eye view. Almost. Finally, two figures off to the side moved back to camp. He knew who at least one of these trolls were. Straightening up he passed the telescope back to his ancestor.  
"You will be capturing them." He felt Darkleer's eyes settle on him but he didn't turn away. "I will not go with you." He began to walk away. The line of trees on the cliff came closer and closer and he had nearly reached them when he heard Darkleer's deep rumbling voice.   
"You understand what this means." It was both a statement and a question. Equius knew exactly what it meant. Choosing those trolls over his ancestor may as well been suicide if they were caught. But...   
"... I've already failed her once. It won't happen again." He disappeared into the shadows of the trees, chasing after his meowrail.

69~69~69~69~69~69

Karkat stumbled when they came to a stop. The shock still hadn't worn off, and neither had the guilt. How could he have been such an ass!? This wasn't the time to be showing so much weakness. He was out in the middle of the desert with his ancestor. He had to be tough. Which for Karkat meant he had to be grumpy.   
"WHAT DO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT?" he snapped, pulling away from the Signless. His ancestor's sharp red eyes studied his face carefully.  
"She doesn't do that often does she?" he said finally. Karkat felt himself getting angrier and angrier.   
"WHATS IT MATTER TO YOU? YOU'RE JUST SOME LIMP FRONDED STOOGE WITH SOME DUMB CHUMP BUCKETS FOLLOWING YOU AROUND THAT WE JUST MET IN THE BIGGEST FUCKING PIT OF BULDGE CRUST I'VE EVER FUCKING COME ACROSS." The useless rants he had been holding back were finally coming out. When the Signless said nothing, he felt himself start to explode. "WOW. WHAT A FAN FUCKING TASTIC CONVERSATION THIS IS. THE RIGHTOUS NOOK SNIFFER KNOWN FOR HIS WORDS ISN'T EVEN TALKING. THIS IS SO FUCKING AMAZING I CAN FEEL MY THINK PAN DO A PIROUETTE OFF THE HANDLE BARS INTO THE BIGGEST VAT OF WONDER FUCKS I'VE EVER HAD THE PLEASURE OF FALLING INTO. SO REALLY I SHOULD THANK YOU. THANK YOU FOR BEING A GINORMOUS WASTE OF MY TIME. WE REALLY SHOULD DO THIS AGAIN SOME TIME. FOR NOW I AM GOING TO GO DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE WITH MY TIME." but he didn't move. He stayed planted right were he was, waiting for the Signless to say something.  
It was a long pause before he said anything. Karkat could feel his angry rising even higher. At last his ancestor said something. "It's alright."   
And he was gone. "IT'S ALRIGHT. IT'S ALRIGHT!? IT'S NOT ALRIGHT! IM IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUCKING DESERT WITH ONE DEAD FRIEND WHO HATES ME, TWO OTHERS THAT HAVE DIED AND THEN FUCKING UNDIED, TALKING TO ONE OF THE MOST IMFAMOUS LOSERS IN ALL OF ALTERNIAN HISTORY!! IT IS NOT ALL FUCKING RIGHT!" gog he was so angry! At the Signless for being a useless pile of moronic excrement, at Nepeta for starting this buldge numbing miasma of thinkpan rotting nub gutters, and most of all, at himself for being the biggest idiot out of all of them.   
The Signless just stood there, taking whatever insults Karkat threw at him. When his descendant finally fell silent, he spoke again. "Are you through?"   
Karkat immediately opened his mouth and prepared to shout some more. Instead, a 'YES' fell out of his chute. He knew he shouldn't be showing weakness. Not on this planet and expessially not to some strange adult troll. But the shock of all of this happening all at once was getting to him and he needed to let him out. Who better than his ancestor?   
A smile flickered across the older trolls lips. Karkat seemed to be warming up to him. "I'm glad." he said. "Now tell me what's going on." He kept his voice calm and level, trying to come across as comforting. Or at least the Alternian equivalent to comforting.  
With a sigh, Karkat opened up and told the Signless everything.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Eridan shows himself to the reader, Signless decides to do something stupid, and the author is rearranging chapters. If you're already reading this story, don't worry about this. It's just the same chapters you've already read.

By the time Karkat had finished his story and the two had returned to the temporary camp, everything had been taken down and the others were waiting on them. Karkat spotted Nepeta and the Disciple in the back talking together. He decided he would just avoid her for now.  
The adults talked for a few minutes before they headed out. Their packs were floating behind them, being held up by the Psiioniic's powers. The trip was a quiet one. They had split into two groups, the adults in front leading the way and the younger ones following behind. It wasn't a good silence. The tension from Nepeta's freakout still hung between them. Karkat could hear the older trolls, namely the Signless, talking in front of them. He was telling them what Karkat had told him earlier. Karkat was going to have to talk to his little gang soon enough too. Gog.  
"freaky riight?" a voice sounded next to his ear. A voice that could only belong to Sollux.  
"WHa-? YEAH." Karkat answered with a laugh. Sollux was right on the mark. This was the freakiest thing that had ever happened to him. And he had lived in paradox space for almost 2 sweeps.  
"ii can tell. you've been quiiet lately. 2omethiing wrong?" He glanced over at the red blooded troll. Karkat let out a laugh at that. Which for him was actually just a chuckle.  
"WHERE SHOULD I BEGIN?" Actually, where would he begin? Sollux had inadvertently given him the perfect excuse to tell them and he was going to take it. Or at least he planned to when Nepeta tugged on his sleeve. Sollux took his que and fell back to talk to Kanaya. Karkat wasn't that lucky.   
Nepeta looked at him with a small and guilty smile. "Um... Karkitty? Can I talk to you?"  
Immediately Karkat put his grumpy face on. "YOU MIGHT AS WELL. YOU'RE ALREADY HERE." Nepeta merely shook off his tone, like always, and moved up so she was walking in step with him.  
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for yelling at you... I was just really worried about Equius." She didn't look at him while she spoke. Rather she stared at the sand at her feet, her emotions written all over her face. Karkat couldn't help but soften up a bit. It was really hard to stay angry at Nepeta.   
"IT'S FINE I GUESS." He said quickly. His own guilt made him keep talking, even though he really didn't want to. "HEY. I'M SORRY I WAS SUCH A BLITHERING ASSHOLE TO YOU..." He choked out, suddenly finding the same fascination with the sand Nepeta had just a few moments ago. She didn't say anything for a long time and he was almost afraid she wouldn't forgive him. When he glanced up at her though she launched herself at him, purring loudly. The two almost fell over but Karkat managed to stay on his feet. Nepeta could pack a punch but she was still pretty light. He let out a nervous whine when he looked up and spotted the Signless and the Disciple watching them from over their shoulders. Nepeta immediately let go when he did this. She was pawsitivly ecstatic.  
"Thank you so much Karkitty! Equius was so wrong about you!" She chirped before latching onto his side yet again. Oh great. What was that guy saying about him? He could only wonder. Sollux laughed behind them and Kanaya watched them with warm eyes. Karkat could feel his face getting hot under their looks. He carefully peeled the purring girl off of him and stopped to let Kanaya and Sollux catch up to them. Nepeta bounced patiently by his side.   
Sollux looked like he was about to say something sarcastic but Karkat cut him off. "WE NEED TO TALK."

WW=WW=WW=WW=WW=WW

Eridan stood stiff at the front of the ship. His ancestor, Dualscar, stood beside him relaxed but with an undisputed air of authority. The young violet blood was honored to stand beside him, he looked up to the other troll, but at the same time he knew if he dropped his guard around him he was as good as dead. The seas of Alternia were sliced easily by the hull of the boat. Gog he missed it. If he ever set foot on another astroid again, he'd save Kan the trouble and cut himself in half. Dualscar rested a hand on his shoulder and he felt him go perfectly still. He could still feel the point of the spears digging into his skin as he talked his way out of getting culled in the middle of Dualscar's captains' courtiers. For now he was safe, Dualscar's new apprentice, but who knew how long that would last.   
"Wwe'll reach the next port towwn in three days." His hand moved to the back of Eridan's neck. The younger troll grid his teeth as his ancestor dug his nails into the soft skin. "Be prepared. I'd like to showw you off." With a flutter of his cape, he turned to return to his chambers. Eridan didn't dare even breath until he was sure Dualscar was good and gone.   
With a sigh he rubbed his sore neck. He leaned against the railing and stared at the crystal clear waters turn to white foam as the ship travelled across the waves. He knew there were sea dweller cities and, not for the first time, he wished he had woken up there rather than on the deck of the Orphaner's ship. "If only you wwere here fef..." He sighed. "Then wwe could givve that glubberfuck wwhat he deservves and get the hell out of here." He could almost see her face in the white. Beneath the sound of the waves, it almost seemed as though he said 'and then I could make things right'.

69~69~69~69~69~69

They had spent the trip talking, both the adult and younger trolls. Now they had set up their temporary camp and were sitting around the fire, planning out what to do next. The others didn't like it when Karkat told them that he'd told the Signless everything. Sollux claiming that things could get more fucked up from here and Kanaya pretty much agreeing with him, though she used different words. When he told them what he had seen, he had expected them to think he was crazy. Sollux saw stuff. Aradia saw stuff. He did not see stuff. But they were pretty accepting of it. His worry was unnecessary. Nepeta just kept quiet through most of it, looking worried. Fuck if he knows what was going on in her head. The adults seemed pretty accepting of the younger trolls as well, if not a bit spectacle of what this would mean. He was so glad the Signless had told them not him. It was still unbelievably weird being around adults and he really wasn't sure if he could have told them. The only one he had actually talked to so far was the Signless.   
They were discussing Aradia right now but no one knew where to look. He didn't know where to look. And then there was still the matter of Equius. Assuming he was even here. And if he was here, did that mean that the others were here too? And what about the humans that were with them? What had happened to Dave and Rose? It felt like his head was going to explode with all these ifs. "I Think The Best Choice Of Action Would Be To Gather More Information." Kanaya was saying. The others seemed to agree with her well enough.  
"We should arrive at the next town sometime early tomorrow evening." The Signless answered. "We can ask around there. See if anyone has seen any young trolls that match the description." The others nodded. "I didn't plan to but if we're going to be there for a few days I could go ahead and preach." This was more for the adult trolls. The Dolorosa didn't like this idea.  
"Are you sure? It's so close to the port cities. I wouldn't be surprised if there were highbloods around there with your name on their list." She was obviously worried. Couldn't blame her though. If they were that close to the ports, there could be a serious issue.   
"That town is big enough that a young troll could easily get lost. It's going to take at least a few days to find out if one of their friends is there or not. If I preech there, it'll give them the time they need and we'll still be doing something productive." He countered. He was right too. The Psiioniic and Sollux had been quiet for most of the conversation, as though they were thinking about something.  
"I have a bad feeliing about that place." The Psiioniic said, pulling attention away from the Signless. He and Sollux shared the same grim expression.  
"We'll be careful." Signless answered. The Psiioniic almost seemed to grin at him.  
"I can't talk you out of this, can I?"   
The Signless grinned. "Nope."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Equius creates quite a bit of drama and the author is rearranging chapters. If you're already reading this story, don't worry about this. It's just the same chapters you've already read.

Signless wasn't wrong about when they would get there. It only took them a few hours after they set out to arrive at the town. If you could call it that. It was huge. Tall buildings filled with trolls took up much of the outer city. Farther in were more shops, hotels and other establishments. It was amazing how many trolls were in the place. At least three had tried to get Karkat to buy something from them. It was complete sensory overload. Nepeta seemed to be having the biggest problem. The Disciple had to keep ahold of her arm to keep her from getting pulled into the crowd. Once they had gotten far enough in, they stuck to alley ways and back roads, coming across some of the slum areas of the town. Karkat was so glad he didn't like during this time. He couldn't even imagine what would have happened to him. The worst was when they accidently got too close to the main square and came across a slave auction. The lowbloods were being sold to the higherbloods. The Dolorosa pulled him along right when a maroon blood about his age caught his eye. He had never seen a troll so miserable. Chills ran down his spine as he walked along. The faster he could get away from that ball of misery and pain the better.   
They finally came to a stop outside of a shabby looking hotel in one of the less disgusting slum areas. Psiioniic went to book a room while the others stood just out of sight. No one would question them. Not here. "The Dolorosa and I will stay here. We're the ones with the greatest risk." The Signless was saying. "Disciple, I want you and Psiioniic to go out and help them." She stared at him for a moment, as though she was waiting for something. "Please?" The olive blood grinned. "Of course!" She chirped happily.   
The Psiioniic stuck his head around the corner. "Got it. Second floor, room 213." He passed the room key to the Signless who gave his friend a pat on the arm.   
"You're helping the younger trolls." He said. "Disciple is going with you. Don't start anything."   
The Psiioniic immediately became defensive. "Sh-" A look from the Signless stopped him. He crossed his arms and grumbled about Signless's relationship with the Disciple and who topped. Signless nudged him in the side with his elbow and the two began an intense battle of slap and tickle. The Disciple leaned over and whispered something in Nepeta's ear that caused her to start giggling. The Dolorosa and Kanaya shared an exasperated glance and cleared their throats. Signless and Psiioniic looked up to meet the glare of two jade bloods. The boys grinned and obediently hid their hands behind their back. The Disciple cracked up behind the jade bloods. With a glance over her shoulder, the Dolorosa shooshed her too.   
"This is hardly the time for that." She scolded the trolls. This was actually pretty comical and Karkat felt a grin begrudgingly rise to his lips. He kept it down by pursing his lips together. He was grumpy enough on a usual basis he could get away with it. The Signless nodded and instructed his friend to show them to the room. The three trolls went inside, leaving the young trolls in the care of the Disciple for the time being. She immediately scooped up her desendant once the others had gone, hugging her. It was nice to see them getting along with each other.  
"Why Did The Signless Tell The Psiioniic Not To Start Anything?" Kanaya asked, most likely so she could keep an eye on the two while her ancestor wasn't there to do it herself.  
The Disciple purred, "We prank each other a lot. Lately the Psiioniic has been starting it. Most likefurry trying to get me back." She had a mischievous smile that creeped Karkat out a bit. The Psiioniic came out a moment or two after that, rubbing the palms of his hands on his pants.   
"Dolorosa's grub picking the room." he said with a grin. Disciple just laughed and set Nepeta down before walking off. The lanky yellow blood kept up with her easily while the younger trolls trailed behind. Karkat had to walk at a pretty swift pace to keep up with then, him being so short.   
Once they reached the nearest market place, they went to work. The Disciple had drawn pictures of the missing trolls before they reached the city in one of her many journals. Nepeta had described their friends for her and it was surprising how detailed she'd been. She had noticed things about Terezi and Gamzee even Karkat hadn't noticed. Not to mention all the others. She had carefully left their blood colors out of the pictures so no one would be able to tell where they were on the hemospectrum. At each shop or booth, the Disciple spoke with each of the owners and showed them the pictures. On a few occasions, coins were exchanged but so far no luck. 

-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->-|->

At last. Civilization. Nepeta had earned more credit than he could give her. It wasn't as easy as she made it look, making your way through a forest. Equius had tripped over too many plants to count and almost gotten lost on several occasions. If not for the fact that he and his moirail had had conversations about forest living before, who knows where he would have ended up. He made his way through the tall buildings, ignoring the low bloods that moved out of his way. Eventually he came across a slave auction. He didn't really care about it, or at least he didn't until he saw an olive blood sold to an older troll. The perverse look on the trolls face made Equius want to break it. If they had been hatched in this time, that very well could have been Nepeta in chains being sold to some sleaze ball. For the first time, he really thought about where he was. The blue blood was so caught up in his thoughts he nearly missed the cat like horns and olive tinted clothes pass across the auction. A sneak of blue, his blue, under the hood of a cloak confirmed it. And he was off, cutting around the crowd. He may have accidentally elbowed the troll who bought the olive blood as he ran passed.  
By the time he had crossed the crowd, they were gone. But now he had a lead. He set of at a run in the direction she had been headed. He managed to keep on track with the barest glimpses of his moirail. Until they turned down a market street. Trolls were everywhere, nothing more than a confusing mass of bodies. He spend at least and hour scouring the street and the streets around it for her. She was no where in sight. He had lost her. In a fit of rage, he hit the wall of an unused building, sending it crumbling to the ground. None of the trolls nearby said anything, they just continued on with hushed tones. He would not give up. He would protect his moirail. As he was sure she would do.  
The search began again at the actual marketplace. He kept a slow pace as he scanned the crowd bustling around him. All he was looking for was one familiar feature, just one, to show that Nepeta was here.  
He didn't see her. But he heard her. The familiar chime of her laugh sent him wheeling around. There. Just down the street. There she was. She was so close. Right within reach...

69~69~69~69~69~69

After a few hours of failure, they decided to take a break and were currently checking out the different shops. Disciple and Nepeta thoroughly enjoyed trying on the flashy outfits at one store while Karkat admired some weapons at another. No one bought anything though. They didn't have the money. Now the Psiioniic was completely pulled in by a headgear salesman. He had taken off his headband to try on some of the goods, ignoring the salesman waving around a large yellow helmet he swore up and down amplified psionic powers. Disciple leaned against one of the tables, commenting on the different looks. He finally turned to leave the booth after trying on a piece that made his head look like a pencil. But when he went to grab his headband, it was gone. It didn't take long for him to find the culprit. The Disciple danced away from the booth, waving it in front of her.   
"Disciple!" he yelled, tearing off after her. The cat woman slipped through the crowd with ease. Psiioniic did not have that grace. He used his weed wackier elbows to shove his way through the other trolls, half blinded by the mass of messy hair hanging in front of his face. Karkat watched from the booth next to when it had began. Nepeta stood by him, giggling rather loudly.   
Shooting her a look that ultimately did nothing, he tromped off after the two unbelievable assholes who only seemed to have the mental capacity to behave like newly hatched grubs. He'd made it down a few more booths before a sound stopped him. A scream. More accurately, Nepeta's shrill, pain filled scream.   
Where she had been just a few feet behind him laughing, she was now on the ground, clutching her arm to her chest. Equius hovered over her with an expression that seemed like he was in more pain than she was.   
The Psiioniic and the Disciple were beside him in a flash. Disciple pulled him back while the Psiioniic prepared an attack. He would have done it too, if not for Nepeta getting up and wrapping Equius in the tightest hug she could manage with just one arm. As you can imagine, the older trolls were confused.   
Equius pulled away and began talking quickly to Nepeta. This was too much for Karkat. He was interveening.   
"EQUIUS!" he yelled, walking towards them. The two looked up at him. Sollux and Kanaya choose this moment to arrive as well. "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON? HAS YOUR BULDGING MUSCLES FINALLY CRUSHED YOUR THINK PAN?"   
Equius was too panicked to answer. "Lowblood. It is imperative that Nepeta and I leave this town immediately. This is a trap and-"  
The Disciple had arrived and cut him off. "A trap? What's a trap?" Her eyes shot daggers at him, as though she wanted to repay him for the pain he had caused her descendant. She most likely did. The blue blood ignored her though and turned his attention back to his moirail.   
"Nepeta. We need to leave. Its dangerous here." He continued. He wasn't making much sence.  
"Equius calm down. Why do we need to leave? Tell me." She tried quelling him. She was still craddling her arm and didn't seem to want to touch him just yet. Probably because he was sweating like a pig and then some plus he had managed to break her arm on top of that.  
"This matter is not up for discussion. We're leaving. Now." He reached out to her, but another hand caught him by the wrist.  
"I don't think so." It was the Psiioniic and his eyes were flashing dangerously fast. Equius met his gaze, looking like he was ready to throw a punch. The others could feel it in the air. The Disciple tensed into a crouch while Kanaya reached into her pocket, fingering here lipstick. Sollux and Karkat stood tense as well, just less willing to enter the fray, should one break out. Things would have gotten really bad, really fast if not for Nepeta.   
The olive girl softly placed her good hand on Equius's cheek, paired with a gentle shoosh. The effect was instantaneously and with a few paps, the tension left him.   
The others reacted as well. The young trolls relaxed. Psiioniic released Equius but neither he nor the Disciple let the tension leave their bodies completely. Equius stared at the ground, a guilty look on his face.  
"Now what's going on?" Nepeta asked, her hand resting on his arm.   
Between his already low voice, him talking to the dirt and how fast he was speaking, it was difficult to figure out what he was saying. "This town is a trap set by the E%ecutionor for the Signless and his followers." The Disciple and the Psiioniic exchanged looks. "That's why we need to leave. You do not need to get caught up in whatever tomfoolery those delinquents cause." He scolded Nepeta.  
"I'm going to get them." Disciple announced, running back towards the hotel. Psiioniic watched her leave before turning back to the young trolls.   
"If you're with us, come on." He said, pointy glaring at Equius. He turned and ran after the Disciple. Nepeta didn't even hesitate to head after them, Equius running after her of course. Karkat watched his other friends run passed. Fuck. What had he gotten himself into? Too late. He was running after them too.

MMMMMMMMMMMM

To say Vriska Serket was happy would be an understatement. She was in heaven. For whatever reason, she had woken up a few nights ago on the deck of a ship, surrounded by adult trolls wielding weapons. She took out three of them when Mindfang came down from the upper deck. Vriska had won her worth on the ship. And now she was ripping up the high seas with the greatest pirate ever, Marquise Spinneret Mindfang! Rules meant nothing and the world was theirs for the taking! So no. Vriska Serket was not happy.

69~69~69~69~69~69

By the time Karkat had gotten to the hotel with the others, the Disciple had already stormed into the room. The Signless had just finished stuffing stacks of paper into his pack and the Dolorosa was getting her own pack. The flurry of commotion was over in a second and everyone looked like they were ready to go. Disciple stared at Equius, who stood just inside the door, but she didn't say anything. The Signless did however.   
"Are you the one who told us about the trap?" he asked, motioning for Equius to come closer. The younger troll nodded, taking a few steps in. "What else can you tell us?" The blue blood almost didn't answer, if not for Nepeta who was watching him with her large cat eyes.  
"I was only told this was a trap for you. I do not know the details." he said. He had puffed himself up into an authoritative air, just as a reminder who he was and who they were.   
The Signless nodded. This young troll was not their supporter. He was Nepeta's supporter and that was the only reason why he was here. "We'll take the main roads out. They won't expect that." he walked passed the other trolls and out the door, everyone else quickly followed.   
They went out the back of the hotel and looped through the city until they reached one of the main roads leading out of the town. Once there, they slowed their pace to that of the crowd at took up a spot in the middle of the street. Each ducked their head down to hide their face, with the exception of Equius. As a blue blood, he most likely wouldnt be questioned.  
Fortunately, no one stopped them and they were able leave the city quickly. Once they were a safe distance away, the trolls turned off the road and disappeared into the dense forest.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Nepeta and Karkat go head to head, Karkat derps up again, and the author is rearranging chapters. If you're already reading this story, don't worry about this. It's just the same chapters you've already read.

Once again, they were sitting around the fire. Only there was no fire. It would have been too risky. So they sat in a circle in silence. The trolls had taken refuge in a well hidden cave, mostly to take care of Nepeta's arm. Now she was sitting next to Equius, happily bouncing in her spot, oblivious to the trunk beast in the room. That trunk beast was Equius.   
It was beyond obvious that he was not on their side. He had referred to most of the trolls, even the adults, as lowbloods and while he was perfectly civil, gog was he a snood. The four adults seemed particuarly angsty around him and from the hard lines etched into the Signless's face, they didn't trust him either. They just didn't know what to do with him. He wouldn't just leave, not without his moirail, and Nepeta had already made it very clear where her loyalties lay. So far he hadn't done much. He had been quiet and only spoke when he had to. It was also very clear that he felt really truly guilty. Equius hovered around Nepeta while her arm was being treated and no matter how many times the Dolorosa had sent him away, he kept coming back to her side. It was as though he wanted to tell her something and either lacked the guts or the words to do it. That just added to the awkwardness.  
It was the Dolorosa who broke the silence. "We're almost out of supplies." Her voice shattered the air like it was glass and the trolls shifted around her. The Signless buried his head in his hands.  
"The next safe town is a three day walk from here." Disciple answered. She would know since she was the one who made the maps the group used.   
"I could fly u2 there?" the Psiioniic offered.   
"Sorry Psii. That's not a good idea. We'd be spotted. You don't exactly turn invisible when you use your pawers." She sighed. The Psiioniic rubbed the back of his neck and muttered something about lighting up like a illumination bulb. The trolls fell into an unsettling silence.  
"We could go to the ports."   
Everyone stared at Nepeta like she had grown a second head. She might as well have, offering up that idea. Going there would be insanely risky, the exact opposite of what they wanted. The Signless was wanted by the highbloods and that would be walking straight into the hornet's nest.   
"Seriously!" was her answer to their looks. "That's the last place they expect you to go so they'd never look there."   
"Hiding in plain sight..." The Signless said after a moment. It seemed like they might actually do it. Karkat wasn't having any of that though.  
"YOU INSIPID BUNCH OF GRUBFISTED SHITHOLES. THAT IS POSSIBLY THE DUMBEST FUCKING THING I HAVE EVER HEARD. AND I HAVE SAT THROUGH PAN NUMBING CONVERSATIONS WITH THE BIGGEST BUMBLING SHITNOOZLE IN ALL OF PARADOX SPACE." he said yelled. "THE TWO OF YOU NOOKFODDLING FUCKS DESERVE METALS FOR THIS SUICIDE MISSION I HAD THOUGHT ONLY AN IMBICILIC SUPOR MUNCHING CLOWN WORSHIPPER COULD COME UP WITH. THE SEA DWELLERS CAN POLLISH THEM FOR YOU SINCE YOUR SORRY EXCUSES FOR A CRANIUM WILL BE MOUNTED PROUDLY ON THEIR WALL." And off he went.  
Nepeta sure was talkative tonight. "But Karkitty, we might find one of our friends there. I miss them." she was pulling out her pouty kitty eyes, a fierce match against the profanities leaping from Karkat's protein chute.  
"PLEASE FOR THE SAKE OF EVERYTHING GOOD LEFT IN THIS SORRY SHIT STAINED EXISTANCE TELL ME YOU ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT THAT PURPLE BLOODED MASS OF DISAPPOINTMENT." Oh! A sharp move bringing up one of the mass murderers plaguing the meteor the time of her death. What would Nepeta counter with?  
"Ew. No. Eridan can go die in a hole fur all I care." she dropped the eyes for a moment. Was she fumbling? "I miss Feferi though." No she wasn't! The eyes were back in full force! Good job cat girl! Wait. Flag on the play flag on the play! Equius grumbled a warning for her to respect the seadwelling highbloods.  
"FINALLY! SANITY HAS BEEN RETURNED TO THIS CONVERSATION FILLED WITH WHAT THE FUCKS!! WERE NOT GOING TO THE PORT CITY."  
"Karkat." The barest hit of an edge slid into her voice. "You can't tell me it's a bad idea to have Feferi with us."   
Karkat opened his mouth to argue back but nothing came out. Goaalllll!!! Point for the green team! Red down, three to none!!! "NEPETA. WHY IN THE NAME OF EVER LOVING FUCK ARE YOU MAKING SENSE?"  
"I've always made sense. Maybe if you had ever taken the time to get to know me, you would have noticed that." The entire forest they were in just froze over. The others audibly winced.  
"Nepeta! Behoove yourself!" The cat girl glanced over her shoulder but didn't say anything. Equius rose to his feet. "We'll be leaving now. Thank you for taking care of her." He looked down at Nepeta, obviously waiting for her to get up. The olive troll met his gaze.  
"No."   
"Yes."  
"No."  
"Yes."  
"No."  
"Yes."  
The Psiioniic leaned towards the Signless. "Is it bad that this entertains me?" He whispered. The Signless grinned.  
"Nope."  
The back and forth had quelled and now they were in an intense stare down. "Nepeta." Equius warned.  
"OKAY. I, YOUR LEADER, AM GIVING YOU TWO AN ORDER. ARE YOU LISTEN YOU MUSCLE BRAINED SHIT HEAD." Karkat twitched and spewed spittle like a beautiful ranting fountain. "YOU TWO GET THE FUCK OUT AND DEAL WITH YOUR GODDAMN PALE ISSUES SOMEWHERE ELSE. GO HAVE A PILE OR SOMETHING JUST DON'T DO IT HERE!!!"  
The two trolls stared at the still twitching Karkat. Nepeta got to her feet, grabbed Equius's arm and ran out of the cave singing 'pile, pile, pile~!' With a final frustrated grunt, Karkat sat back down. Why were his friends such blithering feculent shitholes?

}O}O}O}O}O}O}O}O}O}O}O}O

This was kind of awful. The cart jerked again, almost sending Tavros to the floor. Again. His back ached from sitting in the same position for hours, his butt felt like it was on fire, and his wrists were raw from the shackles biting into them. For whatever reason, he had woken up in the middle of a forest, only to get shackled and tossed in the back of a cart with other bronze bloods. It took him a while to figure out what was going on. When they stopped at a town and watched others get sold, did it finally click. And now he was terrified he would be sold as a slave. He could only imagine how that would go with his robotic legs. Even the cerulean bloods who had captured him said he was damaged goods and would end up culled before he got bought. The thought shook him. Another jerk of the cart sent him into the troll next to him. Fortunately this one didn't seem to hate him.  
The old troll shoved him off and looked over at him. So far, this old troll was the only one who had actually been nice to him. He had been protecting him from the cerulean bloods and Tavros was grateful for that. Who knows what would have happened to him if not for the old troll. A glance toward the troll in the cart to watch them said it wasn't a good idea to talk. He just nodded at the troll. He didn't even know the old troll's name. In response, the troll spat a ball of phlem on the cart floor. Unfortunately that was one of the better substances that coated the wooden planks.   
Tavros leaned back as much as he could against the one beam around the edge of the cart. They were passing through a forest and moonlight filtered through the leaves. He couldn't help but think about his hive and Tinkerbull. It made him want to cry.   
As though it had sensed his sadness, which it may have, a small chirpfiend flew down and rested on his shoulder, it's tiny talons keeping it steady against the sway of the cart. Tavros immediately felt better, he almost smiled even. With a glance to the guard, who was busy inspecting the results of a gold digging expedition, he ordered the small creature to his lap. The shackles limited his movements. The bird did so obediently. He always did have a way with flying animals. With one hand carefully holding the frail little animal, he petted it with the other. He stroked the smooth feathers under the head, one of the favorite spots on almost any animal. This was actually helping him relax. And the chirpfiend was enjoying it too.  
A hard grip on his arm caused him to jump. The white bird flew off with a shriek and he watched it mournfully. A jerk sent him looking straight into the brown eyes of the old troll. He could smell the stink on his breath, which he really wished he couldn't. He couldn't help but wonder how the troll had managed to do it without getting brained by his huge horns. Not the time.   
"Don't you ever do that again." He hissed, spit flying from his mouth. "Don't ever let them know that you can do that. You'll regret the day you hatched if you do."   
With a solid thwack, his head shot down. Through the pain, he could see that the old troll had been hit too and released his arm. He didn't dare look up, for fear of what the cerulean blood would do to him. When neither of the lowbloods moved, the guard walked off, tapping his stick against his thigh as a warning to everyone else.   
Tavros didn't look up again. He just sat, slowly stroking his thumb, trying to remember the feeling of the chirpfiend's feathers. And trying not to cry.

69~69~69~69~69~69

Karkat didn't know what Nepeta did but when they got back, she made sure to tell everyone that they were coming. Equius didn't exactly look happy, did he ever? But he looked a lot better than he had. Obviously the talk had helped both of them. Nepeta was more like she used to be, trying to help where ever she would. Karkat still avoided her though. That was twice she had gotten mad at him and it just freaked him out. He was going to have to ask him what was going on with her.  
Late evening was just beginning when they left. The group was slowly becoming more integrated. Sollux and the Psiioniic were in a heated debate about something and the Dolorosa chatted quietly with Kanaya. Nepeta walked between the Signless and the Disciple. One of them had asked about Equius and now she just wouldn't shut up. That only left Karkat and Equius at the end of the group. Neither of them were particularly sociable, each for their own reasons. Equius felt like the odd man out while Karkat just hated everyone. Better now than never. He kept pass with Equius, though he almost had to jog to do it.   
"OK MORON. I DON'T USUALLY CARE ABOUT THIS BUT WHY DOES NEPETA HATE ME? I THOUGHT SHE WAS IN LOVE WITH ME OR SOME SHIT LIKE THAT." Of course, Karkat is the worst whisperer in the history of everything, so even Nepeta at the front of the group could hear him. Equius glanced down at him. Or at least he thought he did. Gog damn shades. Couldn't see anything behind them.   
"Why do you not ask her that yourself?" Apparently, Equius wasn't going to help much. Unfortunately this was his only choice short of talking to Nepeta himself. And he just didn't want to.   
"IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED, WHENEVER I TALK TO HER SHE CHEWS MY FUCKING HEAD OFF." Karkat whined. Ok. Now he was sure Equius was looking at him. He could feel it.  
"Are you ordering me to tell you?" He grumbled. Heck yeah! He was going to spill the beans!!  
"YES. NOW TELL YOU FUCKWAD."   
Equius sighed. "She is trying to get over you."   
Karkat just stared at him. "WHAT?"  
"You don't understand how much she cared about you. She only ever wanted you to be happy. Even if it wasn't with her. She accepted that you didn't like her. That you liked Terezi. She accepted that she could never be with you after she died. She's been trying to move on. She was doing well in the dream bubbles. But now she's alive, and with you. She doesn't want to fall in love with you again. She knows she'll just get hurt. She's pushing you away because she doesn't know what else to do." Equius kept his voice low. Only Karkat heard him.  
The red troll stared at him. "SERIOUSLY?" was all he could come up with.   
This time Equius actually stopped and looked at him. "Don't hurt my moirail again." There wasn't much threat in his voice but he didn't doubt that Equius would beat him to a bloody pulp if he did. Especially if Nepeta wasn't around to stop him. Without waiting for Karkat's response, the blue troll walked away to catch up with his moirail.   
"FUCK." He had been so caught up in the conversation he hadn't even noticed when Nepeta had stopped talking.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Eridan is found, Pyropes are approaching at full speed, and the author is rearranging chapters. If you're already reading this story, don't worry about this. It's just the same chapters you've already read.

Eridan sat stiff next to the Orphaner. Upon their arrival, Dualscar had been asked to go to a dinner. As the asshole's apprentice, that meant he had to go too. He stared at the fat purple tinted faces around him. He just wanted to rip every one of their fucking faces off. It must have shown because Dualscar leaned over to him. "Smile or else." He was smiling but his voice spoke volumes. If he messed up tonight, Dualscar would mess him up.  
He muffled a sigh and forced himself to laugh at some bitch's bad joke. How he hated them. How he hated Dualscar. They were going to the market place for some shopping tomorrow. Maybe then... If he got caught though, the old fish would kill him for sure.   
Dualscar laughed loudly next to him and pulled one of the waitresses onto his lap. Drunk. Or at least pretending to be. The day he actually got that drunk was the day Eridan cut his fins off. The purple bloods around him laughed and scolded Dualscar playfully, as though he had accidentally spilled his drink rather than molest a young troll. Eridan didnt care about the olive blood. He just wanted to leave.   
"Is it time to go Mister Dualscar sir?" He dared to speak. Dualscar looked at him, hiccuping slightly. "WWe wwouldn't wwant to havve to carry you back to the ship. That wwould be embarrassing." He was so going to regret this later.  
Dualscar gave a sloppy grin and looked around at the others. "Seems like my neww apprentice is a party pooper." The others laughed, except for one or two.   
A thin woman dressed in gold and bright purple dress spoke up once the laughter had died down. "He might be right though. You know what too much alcohol can do to a troll." She scolded him. The other troll put up his hands in surrender.   
"Fine fine. Since you insist." Dualscar rose to his feet, wobbling a bit. "It wwas a pleasure to see you." He turned to leave. It was all Eridan could do not to get up and run out of there. Instead he matched Dualscar's slow and steady stride. With a final wave, they were out. As soon as the door shut behind them, Eridan was thrown against the wall. Dualscar had him held up by the shirt, his face nothing more than a few inches away from his. It was extremely tempting to spit in his face but that would just end up with him getting his tongue ripped out.   
"Don't evver do something like that again." 

69~69~69~69~69~69

They were in the closest port city by the next evening. It was one of the smaller one but it still dwarfed the town they had just fled from. Even the older trolls seemed amazed at how big it was. They made their way through the slums like they had last time. The mixture of sea salt and other odors made Karkat's eyes water. This time they choose a hotel at the edge of the city, so they could escape quickly if they needed to. Fortunately, the inside was better than the outside. They were only able to get one room but it was in well enough shape they weren't worried about someone getting eaten by the floor or the bed. A tiny bathroom connected to the room and they took turns cramming themselves into it before sitting down to talk.   
"I STILL SAY THIS IS A STUPID IDEA." Karkat whined, sitting on the edge of one of the beds. Everyone just rolled their eyes. He had been groaning about it since they had left. It was just like beating a dead horse. Pointless.  
"We should split into teams." The Signless started. "It will make things faster." He glanced around at the trolls. It was a sound idea. This place was huge and it would be hard to find them that way. Unfortunately it would also be hard to find each other. "Kanaya, Disciple, Psiioniic, and I in one team. Karkat, Sollux, Dolorosa, Nepeta, and Equius in another." He looked as though he was going to continue but the Dolorosa cleared her throat.  
"I intend to stay here and make some clothes to sell so we have money to buy food." She said. "Alright with you, fearless leader?"   
The Signless rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry mom. I forget we actually have to do that sometimes." He said with a shy smile. The Dolorosa smiled at her pet name. She waved it off and rose to get her stuff from her bag. "Disciple can go with Karkat's group and Sollux can come with us in that case." From there the conversation consisted of where to look, meet up places, Karkat's persistence of how dumb this was and more. They left the hotel just after the mid evening meal.  
The first night didnt hold much luck. Their searching led them to a maroon blooded dancer and a troll by the name of Sekhet. But that was it. The next night ended the same. A whole bunch of nothing. Considering their success finding Equius, this came across as disheartening for the young trolls.  
"You shouldn't get so down about this." The Dolorosa was saying as she counted through the money she had earned the night before selling her wares. "This is a big place and if one of your friends are here, you'll find them tonight. You know what they say, third times the charm." She gave them a warm smile but a snort from Karkat and Sollux was the only response.   
The Disciple danced out of the bathroom, her eyes bright with green makeup. "Ready?" The others had gone ahead and left a few minutes earlier since the Disciple was in the bathroom getting ready. The Psiioniic had complained loudly about how the Disciple always took forever because of how much dancer paint she put on. This earned him a good thwack from the Signless. Their antics were increasingly amusing. The Dolorosa shoved them out the door before the boys started a new round of slap and tickle.   
Nepeta quickly unbraided Equius's hair and they were off. The Dolorosa followed them out but turned to head to a market further away from the docks.   
The trip to the docks was filled with chit chat. Mostly from the Disciple about her life with the Signless. Apparently the First Ship had been sunk not too long ago by what they assumed were theives. They returned to it only to find it burning in the bay. Since then they had been hoofing it like they used too. "Good times" she said, "Good times." Karkat failed to see anything good about it. His legs were on fire and he had the urge to chew his own feet off. Kanaya, Sollux, and Equius weren't much better. Though Nepeta seemed to be doing well. Probably from her time hunting. She used to brag about how she would stalk prey for days to kill it.  
At last they reached the docks, ending the insufferable noise. The whole place stank like dead fish, sea water and sweat. They avoided going to close to the docks and mostly focused on a large nearby fish market. Even then, they had to be careful about who saw them. The majority of the trolls were low bloods and that could get them into real trouble if they weren't careful. The day slowly passed and they were just about ready to give up when Nepeta spotted something.  
The smaller troll had been riding on Equius's back. Her excuse was to see better but we all know that's not why she was up there. She tugged on the taller trolls horns, turning him with a grunt. He didnt really seem to ,ind though. He was STRONG like that. "Look!" She chirped, pointing at a scarily familiar hair do. There was only one troll with hair like that.   
Karkat followed her finger to the young troll, who was yelling at a fisherman. "SHIT. NOT THAT ASSHOLE." Though he didn't put it the same way as Karkat, Equius had to agree. It just had to be him. Eridan. The Disciple turned and looked as well. She flipped back through her book just to make sure but it had already been confirmed by the younger trolls reaction.  
"It is one of your friends! Let's go." She started to walk off but a groan from Karkat stopped her.  
"CAN'T WE JUST LEAVE HIM?" Again, Equius agreed. Nepeta hadn't taken her eyes off of Eridan nice she had first seen him, even when Equius turned. She saw when Eridan turned his face too. She suddenly leaped off of Equius and ran towards Eridan. Something beyond weird considering she didn't get along with him. With a 'FUCK' from Karkat, the other three trolls ran after her. Appearently this was going to be a regular thing.  
The little troll was fast and by the time they caught up to her, she was already in the middle of a conversation with Eridan. Now that they were up close, Karkat could see why Nepeta had run towards him. A bright purple bruise flowered on the right side of his face. Normally Karkat would have said that he started a fight but based on how much the sea dweller avoided the subject, that was not the case.  
"You should come with us." Nepeta said with a smile. "We'll find Feferi and-"  
"Wwhat? Go wwith you losers? I'll kindly pass. Wwouldn't wwant to be seen wwith you. It wwould mess wwith my rep." The finned jackass explained, crossing his arms over his chest.  
"REP? YOU DON'T HAVE A REP YOU WATER LOGGED PILE OF EXCREMENTS." Karkat had arrived!  
Eridan met him with a steely glare. "You'd better wwatch it land dwweller." he spat the word like some kind of offensive slur. "I havve a lot more powwer here than before. I could havve you executed if I wwanted." Karkat just rolled his eyes. "I don't wwanna go anywwhere wwith you and I'm not gonna. It'd be best for all of us if you just got the fuck awway. And for your informa-" he froze. A loud voice screamed 'boy'. "Ok. Lets go." Eridan quickly finished, ushering the trolls away.  
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU IN SUCH A HURRY ABOUT?" Karkat glanced back at the slowly panicking troll. A dark shadow passed over Eridan's eyes. If whatever it was caused him to act like that, it had to be bad.  
"Dualscar." he muttered. At the sound of the name, the Disciple whirled and stared at Eridan with wide eyes.  
"The Orphaner?"   
"Yes. And the wway he treat me, a felloww seadwweller, I can only imagine wwhat he wwould do to you and your pals." The Disciple immediately walked faster, the younger trolls following her lead. They arrived at the meeting place a good five minutes before they were supposed to. Now it was just a waiting game.   
The others arrived with heads down. They hadn't found anything. The Disciple made her way to the Signless as they got closer. Sollux caught wind of who they'd found and by the look on his face, he wasn't happy. The two groups slowly moved towards each other until they were one again. Of course Eridan began pestering Sollux immediately.   
The whole short walk back to the hotel was filled with discussion and the two boys arguements. Karkat could feel his head screwing off his shoulders. He was so happy when they finally made it to the room they had been sharing. The Dolorosa had her back turned when they came in. She was carefully arranging packets of food in their bags so everything would fit.   
"Signless, I was able to get those lusus shaped crackers you like so much." she said cheerily. A soft blush crept across the trolls face.   
"Mom. We need to go." He said, brushing away his slight embarrassment. The Dolorosa turned to look at him but found her gaze drawn to Eridan's bright streak. With a sigh she closed up the bags.  
"Dualscar I presume." she said, getting to her feet. Signless looked surprised. How did she...? "I've come across him before. I know what he looks like." she passed the packs to their respected owners. With her cloak slung across herself, she strode out of the room. Not knowing what else to do, they just headed out after her. That sure was interesting.

)-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-(

Feferi walked down the stinking alley way, her hand tightly over her nose. She was very lost and very scared. She knew she shouldn't be. Whenever someone got a good look at the symbol and tiara, they immediately bowed to her, something she didn't much like by the way. But this place gave her the hebe jeebies. Or maybe that was just the smell.  
She couldn't help but wonder where she was and what had happened. She remembered hanging out with Nepeta and then she was in her hive. Only it wasn't her hive. It was ten times more glamorized and glitterfied than hers ever would be. She left in a panic only to come across two adult guards. They let her through of course but it had freaked her out. She'd headed towards land as soon as she was in the clear and had been wondering around since. She didn't know where she was or how far inland she had come. All she knew was that she wanted to see a familiar face badly. She could feel tears well up in her eyes when they came.  
It was almost as though they came out of nowhere, though she had a sneaking suspicion that they had been following her for a while. All of the sudden she was surrounded by several yellow bloods. She tried to tell them who she was but her cries fell on deaf ears. They didn't care who she was and appearently no one else around here did either.   
When she whipped out her 3X2 trident, it just seemed to make things worse. They oohed and ahed but that was it. A few small trolls came out of the shadows behind the larger ones. With a smirk they started sparking and their eyes glowed, though nothing compared to what she had seen Sollux do. They reached out towards her and she could feel herself being shoved down. When she fought back though, their smirks disappeared. She wasn't going down without a fight. The battle wasn't easy and both sides ended up sweating. But a punch to her gut and a blast from them sent her to the ground. Her eyes closed against the pain. It felt as though they were going to crush her.  
Even though her lungs felt like they might be failing, her ears weren't. She heard two hard thumps and a lot of gasps and cusses. The pressure on her lifted after a few more thwacks and when she opened her eyes, she'd never been so happy to see another troll in her life!  
"T-ER--EZI!!!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tavros is found, Signless and Psiioniic behave like rolling dork wads, and the author is rearranging chapters. If you're already reading this story, don't worry about this. It's just the same chapters you've already read.

Two weeks had passed since then. The group moved from place to place, looking for any leads for the missing trolls, one in particular. Eridan wasn't as out of place as Equius for whatever reason. Until he tried to hit on the Disciple and got a bruise on his left cheek to match the one on his right. They quickly fell into a routine. Get up in the evening, pack everything up, walk until their feet felt like they would fall off, set up camp, and watch everyone bicker and mess with each other. Things had been very quiet and almost peaceful, in it's own weird way. Karkat could almost start to understand how they managed to do this without eating each other. Almost.   
"Where Did Eridan Go?" Kanaya asked one morning after the evening meal. Now that see mentioned it, the seadweller hadn't been seen all evening.   
"maybe he ran away and ii2n't comiing back." Sollux offered with a smirk.   
"You wwish." Eridan came walking out of the bushes, pulling twigs out of his hair. Somehow it still had that slicked back look, even though they didn't have any hair gel. "I decided I wwanted some reel company and wwent ovver to that vvillage on the other side of the hill." He sat down next to Sollux, despite the yellow blood's protests. "I also found Tavv." He seemingly finished. He leaned over and made an attempt at Solllux's food. Naturally the two began quarreling. After about a minute of a twitchy Karkat watching them, he had enough.  
"WOULD YOU TWO GARGANTUAN IMBECILES LIKE TO STOP YOUR FUCKING HATE LOVE CUDDLING AND TELL ME WHERE THE HELL TAVROS IS?" He shouted.   
The two stopped mid-squable. Eridan was being held up by Sollux's legs, his arms were too busy trying to keep his food away from Eridan's grabbing hands. It was amazing that the food was still on the nutrition plateau. "He's twwo towwns ovver." Eridan supplied.   
"FANTASTIC. HOW THE FUCK DID YOU FIND THIS OUT WHILE WE COULDN'T? DID A MAGIC PIXIE COME DOWN AND PISS THE ANSWER IN YOUR EAR??" He was going to be twitching for a while.  
"I asked, you dumbfuck." Eridan shot back with a glare.  
"ha! more liike you threatened to blow theiir head2 off wiith that 2tupiid wand of your2 iif they diidn't tell you." Sollux snarked. A well place punch from Eridan caught him right in the mouth. The desired plateau of food flipped, dumping it into the dirt. Sollux stared at it. "that wa2 my food 2hiithead." He grabbed Eridan's horn to bring him closer for a good hit.   
Kanaya finished up her own food and patted the area around her mouth clean with a napkin. Rising to her feet, she pulled out her lipstick. After applying a good coat of green, she turned it into her chainsaw and moved over to the two fighting trolls. The boys looked up at her and managed to dodge just in time for her to bring her chainsaw down between them. The heavy blade quickly made a rut in the ground. Sollux and Eridan shared similar expressions, staring at the hunk of metal that would have taken their arms off. Kanaya took turns glaring at the two. They simaltaniously brought their hands up in surrender. "We're done."   
Satisfied, Kanaya capped her lipstick and returned to her seat. There was a moment of silence as everyone stared at her. The looks varied from 'holy shiz' to 'I think I love you'. You could practically see the sparkles in the Dolorosa's eyes.  
The Signless cleared his throat, pulling the focus away from the jade troll. "I think this time just you youngsters should go." This was a bit of a surprize. So far there had always been an adult with them when they went to towns, most likely to keep the young trolls safe. Guess Kanaya had changed that.   
"It Would Be More Efficient That Way." She commented. Karkat had to admit, he could do with some time away from the ancestors. They got along well enough but not that well. Sounds of agreement passed around the camp, and Eridan boasted that with him around they would have to worry about anything. He was probably right too. Now they just had to get there.

69~69~69~69~69~69

It took about three days to get there, the town were further apart than they had anticipated. Once they got close enough, the adults set up the camp a good ways out of the town and the kids headed to look for their friend. This time they were more open about their doings. They weren't the ones who were wanted by most of Alternia after all. Out of all of them, Eridan was actually the most helpful. Whenever one of the blue bloods, got snappy or just flat out ignored them, the sea dweller would come along, say a few words, and they would do whatever he asked. No wonder he was such a snob. But at least he was a helpful snob.  
Kanaya was the one to spot their friend this time. She almost didn't recognize him, it was those massive horns that gave him away. He stood in a line of other bronze-bloods, shackled, and dressed in rags. They had given him longer pants than the others, to hide his mechanical legs. Bronze showed around his wrists where the irons fit too tightly. Dark brown bruises covered his face and flowered down his bare chest. His head was bowed, but it was obvious how miserable he was. A cerulean guard sat to one side, a heavy club resting in his lap.  
Nepeta saw her friend next and she was angry to say the least. She nearly stormed over there but Kanaya stopped her with a hand on the shoulder. The two girls moved forwards at a slow pace, Nepeta trying very hard to stay in control. Eventually they came to a stop in front of their friend. Tavros shifted a bit but didn't look up. Kanaya moved up and down the line a little bit, as though she were picking one of the trolls out, before coming to a stop in front of Tavros again. The guard just watched without saying anything. When Equius came to see what was going on, the older troll suddenly got interested in them.   
"Can I help you three with anything?" The guard asked, getting up and walking over.   
"How Much?" Kanaya put on a graceful air that made her come across older than she really was. Equius just stood there looking confused. When Kanaya spoke, Tavros immediately stiffened. The smile the guard had painted on fell, leaving a cruel frown in its place.  
"This shit blood?" He sneered. "He's not much. Got an ugly mug too." the troll yanked Tavros's head up by his horn. He looked even worse close. It looked as though someone had broken his nose and he had a large lump n his head. The worst part was his expression. He was absolutely terrified. When he caught sight of his friends though he relaxed.   
He took a quick step forward "Ne-" A hard from the guards club sent him back. That was more than enough to set Nepeta off. The cat girl lunged at the guard, her claws out. She would have got him too if Equius hadn't grabbed onto the back of her coat. She did manage to make the larger troll take a few steps back however. He came back in force.   
"Get out of here!" he yelled, waving his club around and almost clipping Kanaya in the head. The three younger trolls backed away quickly, though Nepeta insisted she could take him with one claw tied behind her back. Equius managed to calm her down pretty quickly once they had gotten a safe distance away. Kanaya tapped her finger against her lip. It was obvious she was trying to think of another plan, since that one had failed beautifully. Karkat and Sollux were on the otherside of the market place though she wasn't sure how useful they would be. And Eridan had seperated himself from the others a while ago.   
Speak of the devil and he shall come. A commotion at the end of the street caused the three trolls to turn. And there was Eridan, strutting down the street like he owned it. Everyone moved out of his way and the cerulean guard stood at attention as he came closer. He sure was surprised when Eridan came to a stop in front of him. Kanaya and the others could barely hear the guard as he asked how he could help the purple blood. Eridan on the other hand was easily heard.  
"WWhat do you think I'm here for? I need a slavve!" Eridan degraded the older troll.  
The guard fumbled a bit. By now Nepeta, Kanaya, and Equius had relocated to a side street out of the way but where they could listen and watch the scene before them without it being too obvious. "What are you looking for sir?" The guard asked. It was obvious he was both nervous and honored.   
"I need a lifter. Something nice and sturdy." it was like they were talking about furniture rather than a living being. The guard took Eridan down the line of trolls, pointing out the larger trolls and talking them up. They stopped in front of Tavros as well. It made sense. The years in his four wheeled device gave him strong arms and a good torso. At least he wasnt a complete idiot. Once they had gone down the entire line, Eridan paced back and forth down the line, making his choices. The guard stood to the side, almost patiently waiting for the highblood's decision. After a few minutes of fussing over the other trolls, Eridan came to a stop in front of Tavros.   
"This one." He announced loudly. The guard hurried to Tavros and disconnected him from the line of trolls and passed his chains to Eridan.   
"That will be 1,200, sir." The cerulean dished out the price easily. It was much too high for lowblood trolls to afford but fairly cheap if you were a sea dweller. Rather than pull out some cash like the guard had expected, Eridan waved it away.  
"I'll have someone pay you later." The guard snatched the chains out of Eridan's hands before he could blink.   
"Sorry sir. Pay now or no slave." He said firmly. You could practically see the seadweller puff up with anger.  
"Excuse me? Excuse me!?" He shouted. "You don't seem to understand wwho I am! I am the fuckin' apprentice of the Orphaner Dualscar! WWho wwill be here in twwo days! I'll havve your head for this disrespect." The guard's face paled at the absent troll's name. It was too late though. Eridan had already stormed off. It didn't take him long to decide he'd rather have the seadweller on his side, whether he was telling the truth or not. He ran after Eridan, pulling Tavros along with him.  
"Wait! I'll wait for someone else." The guard gave. Eridan just increased his pace. "I'll give him to you for free!" Not even a blink from the purple blood. The guard was getting really desperate now. He would be in big trouble with his boss if he managed to mess up a sell with such a prestigious troll. Especially that prestigious troll. "I'll give you one of our best! And this one!" Eridan finally came to a stop, giving his follower a solid glare.   
"This better be good." Was his only warning. The guard hastily passed the chains to Eridan and ran down the street to the line of slaves. He soon returned with a pretty, young female troll. Her long black hair was pulled back into a bun and her horns resembled snake fangs sticking out of her head. Everything about her was long and thin, but tough and strong at the same time. She really was pretty. She stared at the dirt ground silently.   
"She's from one of the private stocks. And she does quiet a dance, if you get what I'm saying." You could practically see the young troll shake next to her blue blooded captor. Eridan looked her over, carefully taking note of her looks.   
"Fine. Wwe havve a deal." Two keys later and Eridan was walking down the street with two bronze blood slaves. He turned at their hiding spot.  
"And that's howw you buy a slavve." He snapped at Kanaya on his way by. Nepeta couldn't help it. She leaned back and let out a 'whaaaat', spreading her hands like she'd seen Dave do before. Equius quickly shooshed her.   
"Credit Where Credit Is Due." was Kanaya's answer. Eridan pulled Tavros and the other troll into the ally before letting them loose. It was scary to see how banged up their friend was and Nepeta took overexagerated care when giving him a hug. The girl merely stood there looking very confused through this whole reunion.   
"uH, tHANKS GUYS, i REALLY DIDN'T, uM, eXPECT THAT FROM YOU eRIDAN." Tavros mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. Eridan just grumbled something about going to find Karkat and the others and getting out of there. His version of a sincere 'don't mention it'. The girl was thoroughly confused now. How did this bronze-blood, this slave troll, know a seadweller well enough to call him by his first name? Nepeta came to her rescue and quickly explained that they were all old friends that they were going to meet up with some other friends. The girl just stared, switching between the sweet cat girl and everyone else.  
"What's your name?" the olive troll purred happily. The troll immediately ducked her head, it seemed that this was a habit hers. Not surprising, seeing how she had been treated.   
"My name is Sheyan." She answered quietly. It was a good thing Nepeta had good hearing. Equius called Nepeta to alert her that they were going. She ran at him and with two quick moves was happily settled on top of her shoulders where she could see the world.   
It took a while for their group to find Karkat and Sollux. When they did find them though, they weren't surprised. They sat in some booth playing a board game. Karkat was beside himself with the insults he was coming up with in his losing glory. Sollux just sat there, smirking as he whopped the red troll's butt to Earth and back.   
Karkat glanced up at their visiters with his usually grumpy look. Until he saw Tavros's sorry condition. Then that look became wide eyed. "HOLY FUCK TAVROS. YOU LOOK LIKE A PILE OF SHIT LEFT OUT IN THE SUN THEN STAMPED ON BY THE DISGUSTING INFECTED FOOT OF A HOOFBEAST AND THEN CRAPPED ON REPEATEDLY BY A CONSTIPATED WOOFBEAST." Tavros mumbled in agreement but Sheyan cracked up at the troll's interesting statement, drawing attention to herself. "WHO THE HELL IS THIS NOOKSUCKER? WE DON'T NEED MORE FLEA RIDDEN STRAYS. YOU KNUCKLE DRAGGING IMBECILES ARE ENOUGH." This sent her into another flurry of giggles. Kanaya took care of explaining for the girl as she was too busy laughing to introduce herself. With some more grumblings from Karkat and bickering between Sollux and Eridan, the young trolls were soon out of the town and heading to camp.  
However interesting it was to find Karkat and Sollux, returning to the camp was even better. The Psiioniic had rigged up a glitter cannon at the entrance of Signless's and Disciple's tent. It was meant as a prank for the Disciple. As soon as she opened the tent, she'd be covered in her olive green eye makeup. The Signless got there first. Now the red blooded troll was chasing around the Psiioniic, looking like a giant olive. The Disciple was lying on the ground, watching them with the biggest grin they had ever seen. The Dolorosa had disappeared somewhere, most likely going to fill up the water basket. Probably a good thing too. They were going to be in big trouble when she got back.  
The Psiioniic was floating around, dragging the Signless, who was holding onto his foot for all he was worth. Nepeta fell into a flurry of giggles while most of the others just stood with their mouths hanging open. Karkat responded with his usual comment.  
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?" The Disciple glanced over her shoulder but didn't say anything. The Psiioniic came to a stop and stared at the group of young trolls; so did the Signless but he insisted on having the final word in their argument and gave the yellow blood a good tug, causing him to fall to the ground. "SWEET MOTHER GRUB'S OOZING VESTIGIAL THIRD SPHINCTER. HOW CAN YOU PEOPLE BE SO STUPID?" Facepalm X2 Combo!   
"He started it." Was all the Signless had to say. This show of unbelievable stupidity shocked Karkat into submission.  
"FINE. YOU CAN ALL ACT LIKE BRAINDEAD ASSWIPES IN YOUR OWN FESTERING POCKET FLAP OF ALTERNIA. I DON'T CARE." He stomped off to his tent. Everyone just stared at him as he left, the older trolls looking rather embarrassed.   
"I suppose that was a bit foolish." The Signless admitted.   
"You think?" The Dolorosa had returned. Both the Signless and Psiioniic paled and Disciple held back giggles. She had arrived during Karkat's little rant and was now standing with her hands on her hips, not far away from the boys.   
While the Dolorosa dealt with the boys, the Disciple rose to her feet and made her way over to the group, Tavros and Sheyan in particular.   
"Come with me. I'll fix you up." She said with a sweet smile. They obliged happily and Nepeta followed them to one of the tents. 

69~69~69~69~69~69

Karkat sat on the hard ground of the tent, grumbling profanities and rubbing his head. A laugh from behind sent him reeling to find the source. When he turned, he spotted the faint image of one red cool kid.   
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LAUGHING AT, DOUCHENOZZLE?" He growled.  
"You." Dave seemed to be stronger than last time. He wasn't as fuzzy and hard to understand as he was last time. Karkat still eyed him like he was a slitherbeast ready to strike or something.  
"WHERE ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU LIKE THAT?"   
"I'm right here. Now at least. I'm stuck in time." He sat back on some invisible object.   
"WHAT DOES THAT FUCK EVEN MEAN?"   
"Stuff you wouldn't understand. You're going the wrong way." Karkat almost didn't catch the last few words. Dave was starting to flicker more.   
"FOR WHAT?"  
"To find Aradia. You need to... Fix it."   
"FIX WHAT YOU SHITHEAD. YOU'RE NOT BEING VERY HELPFUL." Karkat was getting irritated.  
"No. You... Her so we can fix... shit." He knew he was flickering pretty bad now.  
"WELL WHERE THE SHIT IS SHE MISTER FANTASTIC MAGIC TIME MAN." He growled, grinding his teeth together.   
"Don't know... Just that... Over... Watch out..." With a final flicker he was gone. Karkat let out a frustrated shout. Why was everything so complicated?

69~69~69~69~69~69

One lecture, two makeovers, and a clean pair of leggings later, the trolls were around the fire eating. Tavros and Sheyan were eating the most, expessially Tavros. Both were wearing some old black clothes but the Dolorosa promised that she would make them better fitting ones soon. The two just seemed happy to free again. Each of them had bandages around their wrists and other places, and the Signless seemed to avoid looking at them. Every time he glanced at the white scraps, an inexplainable fury fell across his face.   
Karkat had already explained what he had seen with Dave and they were trying to decide which way to go. The Signless had been relatively quiet for much of the conversation. At last he said something.  
"There's someone farther east I think we should visit." He said in a pause in the conversation. The Disciple seemed to know who he was talking about and made a face. Which the Signless caught, naturally. "I thought you liked her."   
"Yes. But she likes you a little too much fur my liking." She answered. The Signless tossed his arm over her shoulder and pulled her closer.   
"Do I sense a bit of jealously?" A joking grin played across his lips. The Disciple gave him a soft punch but didn't move away.  
"INTERUPTING THIS DISGUSTING SHOW OF AFFECTION, WHO?" Karkat grouched.  
"Just a Miss Neophyte Redglare."


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Vriska pops up out of nowhere, Terezi is found, Dave trolls the trolls, and the author is rearranging chapters. If you're already reading this story, don't worry about this. It's just the same chapters you've already read.

The next evening was interesting to say the least. It started off with a girlish screech from Tavros's tent. Since Karkat's tent was the closest, he and Sollux were the first ones to get there, followed by everyone else. They were met with the sight of Tavros holding a blanket to his chest and Sheyan passed out on the other side of the tent. In between the two low bloods was Vriska, laying on her side with her ever present smirk. She was dressed up in her Mindfang costume. The female troll must have thought she was an intruder, which technically she was, and tried to fight her.  
Upon the arrival of the others, she waggled her fingers in their direction. "Helloooooooo every8ody." There are no words to describe the mix of sheer exasperation, frustration, and what-the-fuck-ation on Karkat's face.  
"FUCK VRISKA!" he shrieked before stomping off.   
The cerulean blood got to her feet. "Whaaaaaaaat? Don't you want to talk to your favor8 pir8?"   
Karkat stopped half way to his tent. "I DON'T HAVE A FAVORITE PIRATE!! AND IF I DID, IT SURE AS HELL WOULDN'T BE YOU!!" he finished his storm off quickly before she could say anything else to drag him back in. She was good at that. Once he had gone, Vriska put on a pouty face for a bit before glancing down at a certain cat girl.  
"Nepeta."  
"Vriska."  
"I see you're still short."  
"I see you're still a spider witch."  
"You know it." the two grinned at each other, though it looked more like a giant spider and a cat sizing each other up. Almost like how Eridan and Sollux looked at each other from time to time. Wait a second...  
"i, uH, wASNT EXPECTING TO SEE YOU vRISKA." Tavros studdered, coming up behind her.  
"You can say that again, Pupa." she snarked without turning around. "Signy. Rosie." She shot imaginary guns at the older trolls as she walked past. "Where's the food? I'm hungry."  
The older trolls just stared at her. What the heck was going on? And who was that? The group, with the exception of Equius and Nepeta, followed after her, leaving Sheyan moaning on the ground.

69~69~69~69~69~69

Karkat had to give them credit. Despite Vriska's sudden - and dramatic - appearance, which had freaked him out, they had accepted her pretty quickly. They were skeptical of her though. They had heard some of the stories about Vriska and didn't know whether to trust her or not. That wasn't much of a surprise. No one knew whether to trust her or not. But for now, her charms had won them over. Wonder how long that would last.  
Since her arrival about a day ago, they had managed to cover a good bit of land, despite them stopping early to start to really get to know each other, and managed to lose Sheyan. The bronze troll had simply disappeared in one of the towns. They might have been more worried if they hadn't gotten to know her some during their short time together. And the fact that most of the younger trolls didn't really care.   
By the time they reached the right city at the end of the third day, they were ready to drop. Tavros expessially. He was still messed up from his time with the slave drivers. It had been interesting when Vriska asked about them. She told him to tell her the names of the trolls who had hurt him so she could beat the crap out of them. Of course this was after she told him to grow a pair, a phrase Karkat was sure she picked up from Dave. Nepeta spazzed over her ship come true. Karkat just didn't give a flying fuck. They were wasting time. They forced themself to find a safe hotel, which was actually the first hotel they came to, before totally blacking out. They split into two small rooms and with all the trolls, it wasn't exactly comfortable all the time. Everyone was too busy snoring to complain.   
Karkat was actually one of the last ones to wake up this time, because when he did, everyone was talking about the plan of action. From what he understood, the Signless and the Disciple were going to visit while the rest stayed here. Signless had a feeling that they would find another of their friends and asked Nepeta and Karkat to go with them. The red troll just wanted to stay here and relax for once. It wasn't easy being a leader you know! The hiss fit he put up almost made them leave him, but he came along anyway, griping the entire walk over. Karkat wasn't the only one griping this time though.  
At some point in time, the Disciple had come across a beggar and gave them a large amount of the money she had with them. This didn't go over well with Signless, surprisingly.   
"You didn't have to give him that much!"  
"He needed it more than we do! I can always make it back if you want."  
The Signless let out an exasperated sigh. "That's not the problem."  
"Then what's the problem? Me being kind? I thought you liked kindness not cruelty."  
"I do. And I love your generosity. But I swear it will starve us all." After that Karkat just drowned out the conversation. It was a stupid conversation anyways. Nepeta had been quiet for the most part but the cheery kind not the tear-your-head-off kind. That, at least, came as a relief. The grump would never make her mad. Ever. He was too scared what she'd do if he did.  
Karkat had just asked for the millionth time if they were there yet when a door swung open, nearly smacking the Signless in the face. The weirdest troll Karkat had ever seen came out of said building. The she troll had four horns placed like a compass on her head, robotic limbs and even a robotic eye. The young troll just stared as she skipped out. "Later Red!" She called before disappearing down the street.   
"We're here." Signless announced, pulling the door farther back so he could go inside. The grumpy look on the Disciple's face confirmed this. Karkat's face resembled her's when he looked inside.  
The building was actually an office building, painted teal with candy red accents. There weren't many accents since that wasn't the safest color for now but it was definitely there. Book shelves lined almost every wall and a desk covered with file folders was tucked cozily in one corner. And right smack in the middle of the red plush furniture stood Neophyte Redglare, wearing the same shark grin as Terezi. Gog dammit.   
Redglare ignored them until everyone was in and the door was firmly shut. Then things got loud. Turning on her heals, the troll opened her arms and met Signless with a tight hug. "You finally visit me, you elusive asshole!" She cheered. The Disciple's face was comical. The Signless pulled her away, keeping his hands on her shoulders. "It's good to see you again." He turned her towards the others. "You remember the Disciple." The two exchanged awkward hellos. Apparently it took a while for them to warm up to each other. "And this is Nepeta and Karkat."   
"Why's he look like a lusus crawled up his ass and died?"  
"I'd tell you if I knew." He moved away and sat on one side of the red love seat. The Disciple took the one next to him. Karkat just stood there with fire eyes and growled at everyone.   
Redglare walked over to a set of roped off stairs on one side of the room. "Yo! Mini me!" She called up the stairs. "I got something you might be interested in!" A loud bang and several thuds followed after.   
"I hope it's another murder!" Terezi cackled as she turned into the corner into the room. Her face fell when she spotted Karkat. "I'd rather have a case."  
That got Karkat going of course. "WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN? WE'VE BEEN LOOKING ALL OVER THIS FESTERING SHIT COVERED ROCK FOR YOU AND THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY? YOU GINORMOUS WAD OF-" He cut off when Terezi burst out laughing. "WHAT'S SO FUNNY MISS LAUGH PANTS?"  
"You're too easy Karkles." She gave him a pat on the shoulder before getting a larger than life hug from Nepeta. The Signless meanwhile was having an epiphany.  
"Karkles?" He tried it out. And liked it. "Karkles."   
Karkat face palmed. "OH GOG."  
"Karkles!"  
"NO! NOT FROM YOU!"   
"Karkles!!"  
"NO!" The Signless started laughing loudly. Add in Karkat shrieking 'no' and cuss words, Terezi and Redglare sharing the same cackle in one corner, and the occasional meow from one of the Leijons and you had chaos. A high pitched squeal was added to this lovely mixture as Karkat was pulled into a rather sudden hug by some unknown person. He was quickly released and went spinning on his heels to find out who it was. Feferi stared at him with big eyes.  
"I'm sorry. I'm just. I'm so EXICT--ED to see you here!" She hugged Karkat once more, only to release as quick as she did last time. Nepeta was next in the hugging line but the Signless was distracting him. The older troll's mouth hung wide open. He'd eat a bug that way. The Disciple mirrored his shock with eyes the size of oranges.  
"Uh...Redglare..." He waved back and forth between the older troll and Feferi, looking largely like an idiot.  
"She's good." The legislancerator answered with a chuckle. "I found her a while ago getting her ass handed to her by a group of psionics. Hasn't left here since."   
Their conversation drew the seadweller's attention. She stared at the Signless until it finally clicked who he was. When it did, she immediately left her conversation with Nepeta to talk with him. "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Signless! This is so -EXCITING! I've been a fan for a long time. I just LOV--E the effort you put forth to change the caste system!" At some point during her fangirling, she picked up his hand and started shaking it. The Signless just sat there like someone had repeatedly slapped him with a fish. Consider his mind blown.   
After a long pause of her staring at him, he finally responded. "Um. Thank you?" Wow. What a fantastic response.   
Redglare helped him out and asked what he was here for. "Well. We were looking for them." He gestured at Terezi and Feferi. "I'd like to speak while I'm here though. How do things stand?"   
"Mostly teal bloods to worry about. A few cerulean bloods but they're easy to avoid." The conversation dissolved into planning, which Karkat drowned out. He didn't get what the big deal was. Or more accurately, he didn't really care. Instead he was counting who all they had gathered together in their time being here. Almost all of his friends. The only ones who were missing now were Aradia and Gamzee. Who were their ancestors?   
The Signless getting to his feet broke into his thoughts. "I can't wait Redglare. It's always a pleasure seeing you again." Thank fuck. They were finally leaving. When he got to his feet to head back to the hotel, Nepeta got up with him, followed by the Disciple. By now, the Disciple and Redglare had made nice. Er. The two were standing around trading stories about experiences on the road. If they talked like Nepeta and Terezi did then they would never get out of here. Finally the Signless got them to leave after the Disciple shared a particularly embarrassing story about him including a banana and a moving cart. Karkat hadn't been listening to that either. It was stupid.  
He spend the entire trip back trying to remember who Aradia's and Gamzee's ancestors were. It just wouldn't come to him! Signless and Disciple's bicker battle wasn't helping. And neither did the always loud conversation between Nepeta and Feferi. Gosh those girls could talk! Fortunately it wasn't long until they were back. Ok not really. When Feferi reviled herself, chaos unfolded. Both Sollux and Eridan got up at the same time, and immediately got into a fight over who would hug her first. Feferi tried to auspisize but that just made things louder. Nepeta was jumping on Equius, the two arguing about his game playing skills. Meanwhile the Signless and Disciple were explaining to the Psiioniic, the Dolorosa, and Kanaya their plans for the next few days. And for whatever reason, Vriska and Tavros had disappeared. There's only so much insanity even Karkat can take.  
"WOULD YOU ALL SHUT THE FUCK UP!! I'M TRYING TO REMEMBER SOMETHING!" The room grew silent as his voice over powered everyone else's as only his voice could. Every eye in the room turned and stared at him. "GOG!!" It was silent for a moment before a laugh broke it like the fourth wall.  
"Dude. You're just sad." Dave said. Naturally the little troll wheeled on him hissing.  
"I SAID SHUT UP DIDN'T I?? OR ARE YOU SO SPECIAL IT DOESN'T APPLY TO YOU? BESIDES, WHO ARE YOU TO TALK? YOU'RE A FUCKING TIME GHOST... THING!" The last word shot out like a torpedo. Meaning he couldn't come up for a better word for it.  
"Well time ghost thing found Gamzee." He shot back. Signless intervened before Karkat said something else rude and loud.  
"What are you?" Ok. So that was still kind of rude but at least it wasn't loud! Dolorosa shook a finger at him for his manners.  
"S'up old Karkat. I am Lord Hsitkehos from planet Shdelnfi. It's nice to meet you." His face was perfectly serious when he said this.   
"DAVE."  
"My nickname is Dave because Lord Hsitkehos is a huge pain in the ass to say. Under my hood I have tenticals covering my head. Wanna see?" He acted as though he was going to pull down his god tier hood.  
"DAVE!"  
"No thank you...?" The Signless and the rest of the older trolls were so completely confused some of the younger trolls couldn't help but chuckle. If Terezi had come with them rather than staying with Redglare, she would have been laughing her tush off. Dave flicked it down anyways revealing his blond hair.   
"YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT!" Karkat growled.  
"Nope. But look at their faces." He gestured at the adult trolls and huge grin on his face. That had been fun. They were still looking like a bunch of five year olds who didn't know how to use a tv remote yet.  
With a sigh, Karkat introduced the red time man to those who didn't know him. "THIS IS DAVE. HE IS AN INSUFFERABLE PRICK. NOW WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?" The last bit was for the time man himself.  
"I wouldn't mind something to eat..." Karkat grumped at him. "Just here to remind you what you're supposed to be doing."  
"WHY SHOULD WE? WE'VE DRAGGED OUR SORRY ASSES ALL ACROSS ALTERNIA. WE DESERVE A BREAK!" Ok. He didn't really give a crap about that though he was tired. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible but for the sake of annoying Dave...  
"You're a horrible liar."   
"SHUT UP!" He fell silent for a moment. "SO WHERE IS HE?"  
"Oh you already know." He seemed to be looking at Karkat but behind those glasses, who knows. "Don't you Signless?"   
Karkat turned to watch the older troll who was staring guiltily at the floor. And then he remembered. Gamzee's ancestor was the Grand Highblood.

lno-lno-lno-lno-lno-lno-lno-lno-lno-lno-lno-lno

A young troll quickly ran down one of the many dark hallways. She regretted the day she ever offered to work for the Grand Highblood. It was supposedly an honor. But this, this was just terrifying. The entire castle was a maze and stank of death. And the halls always always echoed with the sounds of the monstrous troll, whether it was his shrieking howls that peeled paint off the walls or the horrible horrible laughter. Now, she wanted out. Out out out! Telling him this was the worst thing she could have done. She had just escaped during the day. He would never miss her.   
The walls seemed to get closer and closer together. Everything looked the same! She could still hear it, even here, after all the running she had done. The laughter. It bounced off every surface and embedded itself into her brain, like some disgusting parasite. And now there were two. She was going to die. She was going to die. She knew it. All it took was that one wrong turn in this huge labyrinth. She'd come so close already. She saw his shadow everywhere. Even the little one. Oh gog. Oh gog. Oh gog. She could here two sets of footsteps now. Ohgogohgogohgog! The laughter just got louder and louder, over lapping like some horrible symphony.   
Throughout the castle the laughter stop, a high pitched scream in it's place. Only to begin once more. The Dark Carnival was always open here.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Signless give a speech and the author is rearranging chapters. If you're already reading this story, don't worry about this. It's just the same chapters you've already read.

The next night... they did nothing. Or rather, nothing Karkat viewed as important. Vriska and Tavros still hadn't shown up again and the adults were running around like peck beasts with their heads cut off. The Dolorosa had run off early in the evening after making what seemed like a thousand hats and scarfs. The Psiioniic was out with Redglare scoping out sites for the speech, while Signless and Disciple were busy making the actual speech. Appearantly the Signless had horrible spelling so the Disciple had to spell check everything he wrote. Fortunately they had a lot of paper stored up. The younger trolls did nothing however. They had nothing to do! Feferi, Nepeta, and Equius had formed a braiding line, Feferi in the back and Equius at the front of it doing nothing but arguing with Nepeta every now and again. Ever since they had been reunited, Feferi and Nepeta had never stopped talking even once. It was like an endless mindless drowning in the red troll's ears. It made him want to take the Signless's pen and stab himself in his ear.   
And for whatever reason Dave had stuck around as well this time. Still looking like a glitching husk top screen. Still cutting out every now and then. And still as annoying as ever. But as unbelievably annoying as he was, Karkat still kind of wanted to meet alone with him and vent some of this shit. Unfortunately Terezi had popped by earlier this morning with Redglare and hadn't left. She and Dave were talking and drawing together. They had been all morning and Karkat was just too insecure to go over and talk to her. As for Sollux and Eridan, that should be obvious. They were arguing. The Disciple had gotten up and shoved the two in another room, making some rude remark about black romance before shutting them in. Not even surprising anymore. The cat troll was nothing like Karkat had expected her to be, not that he really expected much from her in the first place. He still hadn't decided if it was a good thing or a bad thing just yet.  
About midevening something finally happened. The Signless had just disappeared into the bathroom when Vriska banged through the door, dragging Tavros behind her. "WHAT THE FUCK VRISKA!?" He yelled at her as they ran past. he cerulean troll came to a stop in front of the one disgusting window in the hotel room. She threw open it opened and ordered Tavros to go through it. It was then that Karkat noticed a bag of something in Vriska's hand. "WHAT DID YOU STEAL THIS TIME!?! GOG DAMMIT!" The troll girl just leaned against the window frame while Tavros tried to fit through the tiny window. It wasn't working well. His horns just wouldn't fit and he was making distressed cow noises now.  
"Oh relax Karkat! We're just having some funnnnnnnn." She grinned at him before kicking Tavros in the rear. "Come on pupa! Believe! Believe!!!!!!!!" He turned his head diagnal and managed to get it through, though he took some of the window frame with him.   
Karkat was about to say something else when three huge guards came storming in. "There you are!" One shrieked.   
"Sorry boys." Tavros was out now and she had moved so she was sitting on the edge of the window. "I'll have to catch you later." They charged at her, shoving a a confused Signless back into the bathroom as he tried to leave. That was probably for the better. But they were too late. With a wink, she flipped backwards out of the window. Karkat could hear her laughter the entire way down as she made her escape. The head guard, a rather angry looking teal blood banged into the window framed and cussed loudly. This was just not his day. Behind the larger trolls, Signless peeked out of the bathroom before closing the door with him inside. Again, probably for the best. Karkat took his lead and let himself disappear into the shadows. He noticed that Feferi and Eridan had ducked under a bed to avoid notice and Dave had disappeared as well. When the Disciple tried to ask what had happened, they simply shrugged her off with a 'none of your business.' It wasn't until Equius stopped them that they said what happened. Equius was a horrible liar but with Nepeta behind the guards feeding him what to say, he managed to pull it off. Apparently, Vriska had crashed a party and made off with some blue blood's jewelry, screaming something about pirates. Figures. Tavros had been with her, trying to stop her, obviously in vain. In the commotion, he'd been blamed for taking something as well and Vriska dragging him away with her hadn't helped the matter. Not that he would have been listened to anyways. They had been evading the law since until they followed them back here. When asked if he knew who she was, he simply crossed his arms and griped about being associated with 'such a disrespectful hooligan.' They shut up and left after that for fear of offending him again. This may not have been such a big deal back in their time but Karkat was actually glad that he was friends with Equius for once. He was proving to be very useful.  
After the trolls had apologized, they left and things returned to normal after Karkat ranted about Vriska. At some point in time the Disciple leaned over and whispered that Karkat shared his ancestor's long windedness. Naturally, this just made him rant even more. The red trolls felt like he would fork himself soon when the Signless rose to his feet and announced that they would be leaving. Now going to the speech was optional but anything was better than being crammed into a tiny hotel room with several other trolls. Everyone else seem to agree since even Eridan followed after them; though, he did gripe the whole time. What's new? Their trip to the spot Psiioniic had told them about earlier was rather comical. After a long parade of hooded trolls, Nepeta and Equius were in the back, fixing Equius's hair. The Signless had announced their leaving just in time for Nepeta to finish an elaborate braid that made her moirail look like some kind of frilly human doll. She was now perched on his shoulders attempting to undo her fine work. So far it wasn't going well. They were in a huge argument by now and the larger troll's hair looked as though a horde of sleep deprived squeakbeasts had slept in it. Eventually, she just gave up and flipped his hood over his head. That was good enough. She'd borrow Feferi's comb when they got back. That thing could work magic. Just look at what it had to untangle every day!  
Their arrival was a blessing for Karkat. Everyone had been talking to their friends except for him. It was like he had just dropped off the face of the planet. As much as the troll scared him, he could really use Gamzee right now. They stopped at the edge of a busy market place, just inside the shadow of an ally way. The market was packed with trolls, way more than it should be able to hold. The Signless kept everyone from entering the place for some stupid reason so Karkat just glared at the passing trolls. A little group of teal bloods huddled together talking quickly. Karkat was a little too far away to hear them but a girl with mismatched horns wearing indigo pants seemed to be leading the conversation with snippets of sarcasm coming from another girl with question marks for horns. He was about to whine about how stupid it was to go to give a speech and then hide when a huge explosion erupted several streets away. How did he know where it was? It was so loud he could hear it from their little ally and shortly after, a plume of smoke billowed up shortly after. The single sleeping law enforcer at the edge of the market place immediately jerked awake and set off running towards the explosion. Signless didn't miss a beat. Once the officer was gone, he slipped into the crowd like a fish into water with the Disciple close behind. Within seconds, Karkat couldn't pick him out from anyone else. The other trolls in the marketplace erupted into excited chatter. The red trolls caught some of what was being said. 'It's beginning!' 'What do you think he looks like?' even an 'He's not that good.' It was pretty obvious what they were talking about. More trolls came running into the area from connecting streets. A yellow blooded troll with curving s like horns nearly bowled him down trying to get in. The air in the square swelled with anticipation. Karkat felt like it was going to smother him when the Signless finally showed his face again.   
"Brothers! Sisters!" He boomed. He had crossed the marketplace unrecognized and now stood on a tall stool, his friends at his side. Even the Dolorosa had come to stand by her 'son' to lend him support. When he spoke, everyone broke into deafening cheering and clapping. Terezi slapped her hands over her ears, a wild grin across her face. It was amazing how many had come for this and how energetic they were. The speech hadn't even begun yet! With a few waves of his hand, the Signless quieted the crowd. "My Brothers. My Sisters. Thanks to the wonderful efforts of one of my followers, we have been gifted with time so that I may speak." The trolls ripped into thunderous clapping once more for the unnamed patron, cutting him off. Who was undoubtably Redglare or one of her allies. Once more he had to calm the crowd. "Let us not waste the precious time this troll has given us!" The crowd seemed to nod in unison.  
"I ask you my friends, why have you come here today? Have you come because your matesprite asked? Have you come to catch a glimpse of the infamous Signless? Have you come here to test just how well I speak? Or have you come because you are tired? Tired of working night in and night out to raise the highblood's empires, to fight in their wars, to serve them hand and foot only to be treated like manure on their boot. Tired of the greatness and wonder of your abilities being disregarded for the soul reason of something you cannot even see on the outside. Or have you come because you are sick? Sick with the poison of hateful words. Sick with the infectious disease known as low self esteem so eagerly given to you by one who thinks themselves better. Or have you come because you are frustrated? Frustrated with the average quo of being treated like lusus. Frustrated of how you can not even scrape enough money together to feed yourself. Of how you can't enjoy friendship for fear of being culled for supposed 'disrespect'." His booming passionate voice softened into something new but just as passionate. "Or perhaps you are like me and have come today full of hope. Hope for what could be, if only the highbloods would see what it could bring. Hope for a new world of peace and equality amongst all trolls. Hope for a world were a maroon blood can chat easily with an indigo blood, for no other reason than they want to." The entire marketplace was silent as he spoke. When he paused, there wasn't even the sound of breathing. His voice fluctuated, always full of passion and truth, pulling everyone who listened in. Karkat found himself slowly moving closer to hear what his ancestor said. Even Eridan and Equius seemed to have been enraptured in his words. Overhead, trolls lined the edges of roofs as the marketplace was too full. As the Signless talked, he performed magic. He wove words into new hopes and images. Sentences became dancers that slithered inside one's mind and danced across the think pan. Paragraphs were waterfalls of logic and emotion pounding away the mountainside of the hemo caste system.  
"And what should it matter, to have olive blood or violet? What should it matter to have bronze blood or teal?" He asked. The speech was reaching it's climax and every troll seemed to be seething with excitement and the desire to do something. "When I look at my Disciple, I do not see her blood color. I see the face of someone who is loyal and generous and fiercer than most. When I look at the Psiioniic, I do not see his blood color. I see the face of someone who has always been there for me and who is there for his friends even when they're doing something stupid. When I look at you, I do not see your blood color. I see the faces of those who thirst for change and hope for something better. When you look at your friends, your colleges, your matesprit or kesmisis or moirail, you do not see their blood color. You see them for what truly counts. You see them for who they are. Not something so shallow as the pigment of what you don't even see." The crowd began clapping again. The Signless was going to have to be careful now. Some of the trolls looked as though they wanted to start a riot.   
"As I finish today, my brothers and sister, I ask only one thing of you. Tell what you have seen and heard today. Spread my word. Tell anyone who will listen. Even the highbloods. Especially the highbloods! Let everyone know your unrest. Let them hear you want for change in your words! Do not sit idle and wait for this to happen. But do not fight openly either. For doing so will only mark you as a target and turn my words into the words of an extremist and a rebel that should not be listened to. Our words hold power. Every word holds power. And once it has been spread to the farthest reaches of Alternia, once every trolls has heard them, we will have our equality!" His fist shot into the air to punch through his last point and the crowd exploded. Terezi and Nepeta shouted and screamed behind him. Even he had to cheer for that. So much hope. The Signless had so much hope. It almost made him forget his ancestor's fate. Almost. When Signless got off the stool, the crowd broke up. Some rushed the troll to talk more while others grouped together to discuss what had happened while others still just left. By now whatever had caused the explosion had been cleaned up and the lazy guard from before came back. He tried to break up some of the groups but that failed miserably. The group of teal bloods Karkat had seen earlier took turns shouting what they saw as the officer waved a stick at them. Signless took this as his cue and ducked down one of the allies, a group of trolls following him. Karkat cursed him. How were they supposed to find him when he did stuff like that?  
"By following me." A voice behind him nearly made him jump out of his pants. It was Redglare. He didn't even realize when she had showed up but it must have been at some point in time during the speech. Grumping, Karkat followed after her along with everyone else. Feferi and Eridan were in a heated argument about the speech. Same with Equius and Nepeta, just not as loud. If they weren't careful, Eridan and Equius were going to get some bruises. Eridan especially. Redglare led them through the winding tunnels to a shop. It was owned by one of the Signless's supporters, who was already there talking to a group of trolls. The owner of the shop was handing out drinks to those listening to the Signless. Eridan, Feferi, and Equius kept their hoods pulled up when everyone sat down. Redglare left them to sit closer to the Signless. It was obvious that she was flushed for him. For the most part all of the younger trolls kept to themselves, only listening to the conversation and not contributing anything. This did not include Feferi. The entire time she talked back and forth between most people in the conversation but mostly the Signless. The longer the discussion went on, the more excited she got. They spent hours and hours talking. By the time their little group of trolls made it back to their little hotel, the sun was peaking over the horizon and Feferi was half asleep leaning on Sollux's shoulder. This was possibly the best day of Karkat's life.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Disciple and Signless experience some relationship issues, the group goes to get Gamzee and the author is rearranging chapters. If you're already reading this story, don't worry about this. It's just the same chapters you've already read.

The following two days were like that, filled with talking and talking and even more talking. Only Signless wasn't giving speeches this time. Rather he'd go and meet groups of trolls and talk for hours on end. Sometimes Karkat would go along, sometimes he wouldn't. As much as he didn't give a flying fuck, there was only so much to do at the hotel room and helping the Dolorosa hats was not something he was interested in. On the third day they finally left. The Dolorosa had sold plenty of goods by now, most low bloods knew who she was and bought them even if they didn't have enough money to help the cause, and the time that Redglare could give them was almost up. Once they were out of the city, it was horribly tense and awkward. No one talked, not even Nepeta and Feferi. With Terezi with them now, the only ones left to find were Gamzee and Aradia. And according to Dave, those two were in the same place. None of the younger trolls knew how to get there, much less where it was, while the only one who had even been near the place was the Disciple. Apparently she had been a pretty steady traveller in her years before she joined the Signless, following hoofbeasts and such, and had followed a herd right past the Grand Highblood's place. Well. Not right past. Even the wild lusus avoided that like a plague. And from the look on her face when she mentioned it, it wasn't surprising. Karkat had a feeling the Disciple actually would take them there if it were different circumstances. The problem was, it wasn't different circumstances and now everyone was fucking quiet and weird around everyone else. He was about to blow up when Signless called to set up camp for the day. It was fairly early but no one objected. It was pretty obvious that the older trolls wanted to talk about what they were going to do next, they just didn't know where to start. Unfortunately, the camp went up way too fast. Like. WAY too fast. Goddammit. Before long they were all gathered around a pitiful camp fire, staring at the flames, completely fucking quiet. Within seconds Karkat's teeth were grinding for the entire circle to hear. Two more seconds were too much from him.  
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!?? WOULD YOU ALL JUST TALK ABOUT THE HUGE FUCKING ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM!? OK. IN THE CLEARING. THAT WAS A HORRIBLE COMPARISON SINCE MOST OF YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE HELL AN ELEPHANT IS BUT WHO EVEN CARES JUST TALK YOU INSUFFERABLE BUCKETS OF ROTTEN EXCREMENTS!!" The circle echoed with his words. It was a few seconds before someone actually spoke up and the Disciple and the Signless decided to speak at the exact same time.  
Disciple raised her eyebrows in warning for him to let her talk first before continuing. "I think we should help them."  
"I think we shouldn't." Signless shot back almost immediately. "No offense." He informed the younger trolls, as though that wouldn't make it offensive. Eridan and Equius took this as their chance to get offended. They'd been trying to find fault with the Signless since they first met him, but the guy was either too clueless or too good of an arguer to actually peg him with anything that couldn't be shoved back in their face. A smack from Nepeta and a nudge from Feferi got them to uncross their arms, though they were still as defensive and prickly as a scared quillbeast.   
Disciple narrowed her eyes at him, and almost growled. "And why do you think that?" Oh boy. This was not going to be a fun conversation.  
Signless ducked his head, rubbing the back of it. "Can we talk about this elsewhere?" Not a good idea.  
"I don't see why. This has to do with them. They deserve to know. Don't you think Mr. Sharing-Ideals." That one was a jab with a freaking pitchfork.  
"Fine." He sighed. "I don't think we should because they're from the future and they're not the ones who have a price on their head."   
Disciple seemed to back off some. He definitely had a valid point. "We can't just leave them though. They will die there unless they have help. I know that." Another good point. Even Eridan knew they'd probably be in over their heads and he was the guy who kept killing angels like a dumbass. The conversation was slowly becoming only the Signless and Disciple arguing and they were starting to slip away from the others around them. Before long it would be just those two.  
Signless thought about it a second before leaning in to answer her. This was obviously a person conversation that very much shouldn't be talked about in front of everyone. "I don't want anyone of us getting hurt there. Especially you." He was obviously being very caring about this, hoping to win her over. Instead he said the exact wrong thing.  
"So you'd rather send in ten young trolls who are, quiet literally, our future to die in a horrible clown infested castle than help them and maybe all of us get out together?" Dangerous territory now because she had a wonderful point. Everyone had grown closer to each other the last few weeks. Even Equius had grown a strange fondness for the older trolls and helped Dolorosa with her goods by being a model since the knitting needles were a bit too thin and delicate for him.  
"Yes I would." Now the Signless was starting to get mad too. "Not because I hate them but because I love you and everyone else in our family."  
"You just said everyone but you'd still send them to their deaths? You're turning into a hypocrite."   
"They're not apart of our family and you know it!" The younger trolls who's ancestor was near shifted uncomfortably.   
"They are too! Look at them! They're just like us! He," A finger was jabbed at Karkat, "is just like you!"   
Karkat objected to that but he was bowled over by the Signless. "Yes but no! Stop turning what I say into something else! She," He jabbed his finger at were Nepeta wa- used to be. She'd relocated to tucked close to Equius. She was not a fan of this hard core arguing if it was like this. Apparently ships were different. Fuck if he knew how. "is her own person! She will never be you! Never ever ever! And she will never be mine!" The cat girl scuttled closer to her moirail.   
The Disciple gasped when he mentioned Nepeta. "Don't bring my decedent into this!"  
"Why not? You brought mine into it!"  
She flubbed for a moment before continuing. "That not the point! The point is that we can't just leave them to die! You can't tell me that you don't care about them!"  
"And that's not my point! Yes. I care about them! But I've known then for a few weeks. I've known the Psiioniic and you for years, and the Dolorosa for my whole life! I'm not putting any of you in that kind of danger!"  
"And what if just you went?" Oh boy. This was a loaded question.  
Signless froze for a second, thinking it over, trying to figure out the right answer. "Yes... That'd work."  
And then the Disciple pounced. Not like Nepeta's tacklepounce. Oh no. This was a full on, screeching, claws-out, angry pounce. The two fell of the log they were sitting on and into the grass were they rolled around wrestling each other.  
"What the heck! I thought you wanted to help them!"  
"You asshole!" She screeched back. It was obvious she was furious. Her complete ignoring of the question just made him madder.  
"How am I the asshole when you're the one who tackled me and won't tell me what you're even mad about! You know that I'm the one they're looking for! I'm not putting you in danger because of me! That's why I should go!" This conversation obviously had nothing to do with the young trolls anymore. Joy.  
"And that's why you're an asshole!" She was on top of him now, holding him down by the shoulders. "You're such a selfish, arrogant asshole! What makes you so damn important that you have to go into danger!? Do you think we don't care about you!? That you're the only one who gets to worry about us!? Cause you're wrong in your stupid, disgusting leggings!! Don't you think about what would happen to us if you died? Do you really think you'd be the only one who would get hurt? Every single one of us care about you and love you! You're not allowed to go off and die just because you think you caused this! We all knew what we were signing up for and if you go down, we all go down you asshole! Because we love you! And I love you most of all so if you go off and get yourself killed without me, I'm going to bring you back to life just so I can kill you myself!!" She was shaking by the end of it and the entire clearing had fallen silent so her last words seemed to echo forever. As she talked, she had dug her claws into him, which probably hurt like heck but he was too shocked to say anything. The tension in the air could strangle a person, and by the look on Nepeta's face, it may have. "You don't get to do that." She muttered, followed by another 'asshole'. A few more seconds and the Dolorosa got to her feet and gently detached the Disciple from the Signless. While Dolorosa led Disciple to her tent, Psiioniic managed to gather up the pieces of the Signless and get them back to his and Disciple's shared tent, leaving the young trolls in the glorious bliss of sheer awkwardness and uncomfortableness. No one wanted to speak up, nothing would sound right after that. Fortunately the Psiioniic came back after a few minutes and sat down at his place again. After a few more beautiful moments, he broke the silence by zapping fire with a psionic blast, turning it into a strange combination of wild blue and red fire that licked the sky. "I hate it when they do that." He grumbled. All they could do was nod in agreement.  
69~69~69~69~69~69  
The rest of that night was pretty much a steaming pile of crap. The Psiionic and Dolorosa periodically switched spots, leaving their respective wards alone. At some point in time the Disciple had creeped over to Signless without anyone noticing until Psiioniic went back and caught them. Based on the marsh mellow in his hair, it was safe to say that they had made up. That didn't solve the problem of what they were going to do though. Everyone ended up going to bed restless and uncomfortable. Turns out that in the evening when they woke up, Disciple and Signless had spent the day talking about it. Disciple was going to lead the group to the edge of the Grand Highbloods property. From there, it would be just the young trolls. Disciple taking over was a huge difference. It was like they were trapped in some kind of bizarre video game with a demented kid at the controller. Their route made no sense at all. Every time they even got close to civilization, not only would Disciple go around it, she'd flat out turn around and go back the way they came. She wouldn't let them set up camp either, something that most definitely did not agree with Karkat's back. More than once he woke up with a horrible ache and leaves where leaves should not be. The only ones who were doing well were Disciple and Nepeta which was not a surprise. But every time someone asked Disciple what on Alternia she was doing, or were they even going the right way, her answer was always 'soon.' What would have taken them a week on the road ended up taking them two but at last they were only a day away from the palace. In truth, Karkat wanted no where near that place. For the past three days there had been this creeping chill in the air. Now it was even worse. It felt like every time he turned his back, the trees themselves would change and shift into something horrifying, watching him like some kind of fascinating zoo exhibit. 'what do you think he'll do next?' 'maybe he'll do a trick!' 'if he doesn't we can always punish him.' 'hit him.' 'hurt him.' 'heh. it'll be fun.' 'hahahahahaha.'  
'hahahahahahahaha!'  
'HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH A!!'  
'HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!'  
It was fucking creepy. The surrounding forest seemed to be filled with that demented laughter. Not even covering his ears made it better. Everyone else was having the same problems. They were all on a whole new level of nervous. Disciple and Psiioniic snapped at each other for every little thing, Dolorosa and Signless actually got into a big argument over something really stupid and dumb, and Equius and Nepeta were having piles every time they stopped for long enough. Even Vriska said they were in way over their head.   
When it was finally time to go, it was incredibly hard to get going. Everyone was filled with a dread that made them slow. The night was halfway done by the time they made it to the entrance of the palace. It wasn't what Karkat had expected. Then again, he hadn't known what to expect. The entrance was actually the entrance to a maze. The walls were ragged hedges that grew several feet into the air. The plants were dotted with huge purple flowers that let loose a sickeningly sweet smell. From somewhere within maze a record was playing a record. The tune looped through the maze, playing the same melody over and over again, as though it was on a perminant skip.   
Ba-du-du Ba-duuh! Bu-du-du Ba-duuh! Ba-du-du Ba-duuh!  
Karkat never wanted to run away as much as he did now. Not even when Gamzee lost it. Gosh Gamzee. He wasn't sure which he was more scared of. The thought that he had been hurt, or worse, somewhere in this clown prison, or the thought that he had joined up with his ancestor. Both sent chills down his spine. Behind him, Nepeta and Disciple were having a serious hug session. Kanaya and the Dolorosa were too, just a lot less.... Leijon. Even Sollux and Psiioniic were exchanging painfully awkward conversation. Mostly bad jokes and complaints about how incredibly fucking stupid this was. Everyone else was plagerizing the ancestor goodbyes as well of course, leaving Karkat by himself. The Signless came up behind him and stood there awkwardly for a moment.   
"So..." He lost that one. Not that he even had it in the first place.  
"WHAT DO YOU WANT, FUCKWAD?" Ah. Classic Karkat charm.  
"Are you scared?" He asked after a minute or two.  
"OF COURSE I'M FUCKING SCARED. I'D BE THE CRAZIEST TROLL ON ALTERNIA IF I WEREN'T. AND THAT'S INCLUDING YOUR GAGGLE OF MENTALLY DERANGED FRIENDS." He couldn't help but stare into the darkness of the maze. It was as though some unknown force was pulling him into the black. He was absolutely terrified. "BUT I HAVE TO DO THIS." Because somewhere in that maze of honking darkness was his best bro.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which all hell breaks loose and the author finally posts the new updates.

Fuck fuck fuck! This was a horrible horrible idea! Why the hell did he ever agree to this? Within five minutes of entering the maze, everyone began arguing about which way to go and split up. That left Karkat in a group of three with Nepeta and Equius. If you could even call it that. Nepeta and Equius were arguing so much he was about to run off by himself. Or at least he would if he weren't absolutely terrified to go alone.   
The farther in they went, the worse things managed to get. At first it wasn't so bad. Just the feeling of crushing despair and the scent of those flowers choking everyone. And then the ruts started to show up. Deep ruts liked the edged of the maze walls, as though something very heavy had been dragged through the area. For a while, thats all they were: ruts. But then things began to show up in the ruts. Thin trails of color tinted crust along the edges, long black threads, chips of yellow and orange. Karkat tried his hardest to avoid looking at them as well as the flowers along the bottom of the bushes. The purple flowers were flecked with different colored spots. Green, yellow, blue, brown, red. He was almost grateful for those speckled flowers' scent.   
The first one they saw was a yellow blood. Based on the burn marks around the body, he must have been a psionic. He couldn't tell if it was a good thing or a bad thing but there wasn't much left of the body. It must have happened so long ago. The only thing left was a busted half rotted skull and a shoulder crusted in what looked like dried mustard. Karkat nearly tripped over the troll's upward curving horns. After that, Nepeta retired to being Equius's hat, often times burying her face in his hair. There weren't any others for a while after that one. That troll seemed to have made it the farthest. The next one was much fresher. She'd only been dead about a week it seemed like. She was a rust blood and by the look of her, she'd put up a serious fight. Even though she was only wearing a basic cotton shirt, the skin that was left was criss crossed with scars. She used to be pretty despite her scars. Her hair was thick, black, wavy and reached about her waist. She had been thin, with long spindly limbs that would have made her movements elegant and graceful, similar to how the Dolorosa moved. One of those spindly legs had been torn off and tossed several meters away. Her calloused finger tips were bloody and raw, lacking any finger nails at all. Her angular face had been bashed so hard only half of her face was present, leaving one pointed horn and one dull red eye staring blankly into the sky. Karkat never wanted to know what it looked like inside a trolls head. Especially not after this. He wished she was the hardest one to get past but she wasn't. Next came the olive blood that was nothing more than a torso and legs, then the bronze blood with no hands and his chest ripped open. The worse was the seadweller though.   
She had been crushed by a boulder just below her rib cage and bled so much she had to be dead. Her horns were tall and curved up, though one was cracked half way up. Karkat had just cleared her horns and was moving on when something grabbed his ankle. Being the brave soul he is, he screamed like a wriggler. Her arm had shot out and grabbed him, sharp desperate nails digging into his flesh. She managed to raise her head and find his eyes, wide ink black pupils pouring into his. "You have to get out." She croaked. "No hope... No hope..." Her grip began to slip but the mutant troll was too terrified to move. "Get. Out." was her final command before she fell, almost seeming to collapse in on herself. She was dead now. There was no doubt. This troll was dead. Karkat didn't even jump when Nepeta spoke.  
"Karkat?" She seemed almost as shook up as he was, her tiny clawed hands laced through Equius's hair. The big brute was sweating so much it was like a miniature rain storm. Karkat didn't say anything. He just turned and kept walking, because if he opened his mouth, he would scream.   
He didin't know when it happened but after a while the bodies didn't seem as bad. They were bad but rather than being some disturbing, clown created omen warning what his near future would be, they were simply there. He couldn't tell you how long they'd been in the maze either. What he could tell you though, they'd been watched the entire they had been there. Finally, they came across what seemed to be the center of the maze. It was a huge clearing, lined with those big purple flowers. In the middle was some kind of tent. Tall stone pillars held up heavy cloth that looked heavy enough to snap someone's neck if it fell on them. A flap was open at the front of the tent. No light entered the tent so he couldn't make out anything inside it. But he could hear the skipping music louder than ever and stinking waves of death washed out of that flap. As he surveyed the area, Karkat saw his friends arriving at about the same time as they had. Vriska fingering her dice came from one opening in the hedges, closely followed by a lance armed Tavros and Terezi with cane-sword at the ready. Next came Eridan, Sollux, Feferi and Kanaya, each with their weapons out as well. Glancing up at Nepeta he saw that she had put on her bright blue claw gloves. He had to check himself to find out that he had his hand welded to his sickle. When that happened, who the fuck new. But it sure as heck wasn't very reassuring.   
Vriska made her way over to them. "This isn't right. We need to m8ke a 8r8k from this place." She told him, totally and completely out of Vriska character. It was freaky. By then the others had converged into a little group in front of the massive tent.  
"I hate to say it but... I havve to agree wwith her. There's a reason Dualscar avvoids this chump wwhenevver he can."   
"YOU SHITS DO REALIZE THAT IF YOU WANTED TO TALK THE GROUP OUT OF THIS, YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE IT SOONER RIGHT? IT'S FUCKING POINTLESS NOW. WE'RE STARING THE CLOWN IN IT'S STUPIDLY PAINTED FACE." He was too scared to be more creative with his insults. Not that this was really the time to be insulting clowns.   
"They Do Have A Point Though." Kanaya chipped in.   
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT? THE FACT IS THOUGH THAT WE..." He trailed off. Something was wrong. Different. But what was it?   
Ba-dudududu ba du du!   
Wait. When did the music change? When did it stop skipping? It was skipping a minute ago! It was like time changed. Karkat stared into that gaping black hole that was the tent entrance, completely ignoring his now arguing friends. They were not alone.   
As if on cue, it began.  
"hahahahaha." Everyone froze and turned as though in slow motion.   
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" This really must have been hilarious to them. They're prey, so close, and oh so oblivious. A second voice joined the first.  
"hahahaHAHAHAHAHA!"  
"hahahaHAHAHAHAHA!" The clearing was suddenly flooded with blinding light, the kind that one would see at a circus. Karkat had to through his hand over his face to protect his eyes, it was so bright. There were more lights in the tent. Gog he wished there weren't. Inside, center stage, was the Grand Highblood. The troll sat on a huge onyx throne with purple stained metal curling along the armrests and corners. Between the light and the metal, the stone throne seemed to glow with a demonic indigo light. The troll sitting on the was even worse than the throne. Every bit of the Grand Highblood fit on that huge throne. Massive grey hands the size of Karkat's head gripped the armrests as he laughed. The indigo boning on his outfit was like some kind of huge rib cage that had grown over his chest and the matching guards on his forearms looked as though he punched through a younger indigo blood and decided their skeleton would make wonderful jewelry. Even his pants were creepy. Well. As creepy as purple polka-dot pants can be. Which wasn't loads but good gosh if he didn't make them look like something out of a horror movie. He banged on one armrest in his laughter, making the ground seem to shake, and through back his head. How he did that with four foot tall horns, Karkat had no idea but there was no way in hell he was going to go up and ask. The troll commanded all attention to him. The inside of the tent was horrendous. Every inch of the ground and walls were covered, no, soaked in blood. Red, blue, green, yellow, brown, jade, purple, teal, cerulean. No color was safe. Not even those above him. Piles of [i]something[/i] were located haphazardly around the tent. It was like some kind demented wriggler finger painting. Karkat threw up right then in there, as did Tavros and Eridan. Nepeta had buried herself so far into Equius that she was barely visible. Feferi and Equius had to look away and the others seemed just as disturbed, just too shocked to look away.   
"what's the matter best bro?" Gamzee's voice made him look up from his hurling. "IS THAT ANY WAY TO GREET YOUR BEST FRIEND?" This sent the two indigo bloods into another flurry of laughter. He was standing halfway between his ancestor and his friends. He was fine. He was so perfectly fucking fine. He was having a fucking blast. Karkat had worried over him and brought his friends into this death trap because of him and the damn motherfucker was having the best fucking time of his life. How could he have done that? How could he have been so stupid? Gog fucking dammit. He was the worst leader, the worst friend, who could have ever lived. But he wasn't going without trying. He wasn't that shitty.  
"H-HEY GAMZEE. BEEN A WHILE BUDDY." The two fell silent and stared at him, two deranged red eyes tearing holes into him. "I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT I'M PRETTY FUCKING TIRED OF THIS PLACE. WE SHOULD GO BACK HOME AND GET A FAYGO OR SOME SHIT LIKE THAT." It was a horrible attempt but his moirail senses weren't working in this place.  
"heh heh heh. WHO SCREAMS LOUDER? the motherfucking loud mouth? OR THE OLIVE WART?" Grand Highblood growled, chasing away all feelings of happiness and hope and other warm fuzzies. It was like he had radarred in on one of the weaker links in their little group. Nepeta was perfectly still on top of Equius, here eyes the size of saucers and pupils dilated as big as they would go with terror. One wrong move and she would have burst into a thousand pieces. Karkat couldn't see Equius's face behind his glasses but he gave off a very scary aura that made the smaller troll take a step away from him.  
"i've motherfuckin heard what the motherfucking cat sounds like. WE SHOULD SKIN BOTH THE MOTHERFUCKERS AND FIND OUT." On that note, Gamzee brought out his clubs and walked towards them, letting them drag on the ground behind him. Karkat could hear the squish beneath Gamzee's purple sneakers and he came closer. Behind him, his little rag tad group stiffened, Vriska and Eridan ready their weapons and Kanaya's lipstick transformed into a roaring chain saw. Karkat raised his arm, as though he was papping them, as though he were saying 'one more try', and stepped forward, sickle at the ready, to take on his best bro.  
II-II-II-II-II-II-II-II-II-II-II-II  
Or at least he would have if someone hadn't tossed him away with psionic powers. Psii stood just within the little clearing, smiling faintly. He wasn't too late. Good. He didn't know exactly what had been going on or why it was just Karkat going out there, but, let's face it, he didn't care. Karkat was as good as dead if he tried to take on an indigo all on his own, much less a subjugulator. Disciple and Signless came bounding up beside him, [i]one of them[/i] nearly plowing him over in the process. Other than that, the clearing was silent, most likely still shocked at the troll's sudden flight. Rosa arrived just in time to hear Grand Highblood let loose a furious honk. Psiioniic clapped his hands over his ears, it was so loud. That guy was a monster. Speaking of, his foot steps could be heard coming out of the tent. "Oh 2hiit."  
"You can say that again."   
And then he was out, his massive head swivelling around, looking for the perpetrator. Behind him, his mini was getting to his feet, looking just as furious. Two sets of angry, deranged orange eyes zeroed in on Psiioniic. Double ****. All hell broke loose in the following instances. A sword was drawn, a gun cocked, a chainsaw reeved, two sets of claws set on point, two psionics sparked, and two very angry highblood clubs were poised for thrashing. Even Dolorosa pulled out a pair of scary looking blades. He was going to have questions about that later. That itself would have been enough but no. There had to be more. A bright blue arrow came shooting directly at him. It would have nailed him right between the eyes too if Disciple's quick reactions hadn't pulled him into a duck. Great. That guy was here too. How perfect. This was going to be one hell of a fight.  
69~69~69~69~69~69  
And indeed it was. In the moments after the E%ecutor had anounced his presence, the clearing filled with about 15 more adult trolls and the blue blooded muscle wall himself. Everyone was fighting now, even Signless. Assuming you could even call it fighting. Vriska and Tavros we're together taking on three of the adults, Sollux and Feferi taking on another three while Eridan handled two with his science stick. Equius and Nepeta were dealing with the E%ecutor, though how well they were doing was debatable. Dolorosa had taken up post by one of the entrances to the maze, surprisingly good with her two swords. Disciple was helping out by sending enemies her way when she wasn't caught up in a battle herself. Signless... was hitting trolls in the head with a stick whenever Dolorosa sent them to the ground. It would have been pretty comical to watch if everyone weren't fighting for their lives. Psiioniic and Terezi were trying to deal with the Grand Highblood, leaving Kanaya and Karkat to deal with Gamzee. Fortunately, Grand Highblood was angry enough that he wasn't paying much attention to who he was hitting so long as he was hitting someone. As it turned out, Psiioniic and Terezi were miraculously good at fighting together. The teal blood sure had a way with making Makaras angry. A swing from Gamzee's club brought Karkat back to his own fight. He hated seeing him like this. He was supposed to be him moirail. He should be able to fix it. Instead he was a giant fucking failure. It was all he could do to keep from getting brained by his best friend. If Kanaya wasn't there with her chainsaw, he would have been dead already. Another swing from Gamzee, this one directed at Kanaya sent sparks flying as the metal pin hit the chain. Karkat was prepared and shot at him from behind, grabbing onto his friend's back and under his arms in hopes of limiting his movements. It worked for a total of two seconds before Gamzee managed to shake him off. Though the whole fight he was getting angrier and angrier, and getting stronger and stronger in the process. Karkat was starting to believe that it would take a miracle to win this fight. Nepeta was cornered by the E%ecutor now, Psiioniic was in a choke hold, and Eridan had managed to get hit in the head, knocking him out. Gamzee turned on him, swinging his club blindly. It was like playing Russian Roulette punches. If he got hit, he wasn't going to wake up. In a moment of pause, just before Gamzee bashed his face in, Kanaya came in, managing to cut into Gamzee's arm with her chainsaw and making him drop his club back behind him. She'd managed to cut a tendon apparently as his arm was now hanging like a limp noodle by his side. The look of surprise on Gamzee's face; maybe he'd snapped out of it? And then it was gone, him honking with such ferocity his eyes were almost crimson with madness. He turned on Kanaya before she even had time to blink and brought her to the ground under him. He hit her once, twice, three times. Again and again. Karkat thought he heard a sickening crunch but he wanted not to he almost didn't. This was going horribly. They were all going to die and it was going to be all his fault. Grabbing his friend from behind, he somehow managed to pull Gamzee off Kanaya and onto some so far uncluttered grass. It was probably just adrenaline. No way he was that strong normally. Gamzee stayed down, shaking slightly. Karkat stared at his friend, just watching. Was that purple dripping from his head? They'd been lucky to get his arm, no way they had gotten his head. Did that mean... Was Gamzee... crying? Well fuck common sense, Karkat got a little closer and closer. Did this mean he was back to normal? Or was this some kind of trick?  
"gamzee?" He just barely breathed, way too close to be safe. Gamzee turned, tears streaming down his face from his bright orange eyes, a monstrous grin on his face.   
"got you motherfucker." He whispered, before lunging straight at him. Something was in his hand. Something bright blue and sharp. And then it wasn't in his hand. It was in Karkat.  
-l->-l->-l->-l->-l->-l->-l->-l->-l->-l->-l->-l->  
One minute she was there, fighting back to back with him just like normal, and then she was gone. Where was she? Ever since they had died, Equius had become more and more protective of Nepeta, and, after a very awkward pile about why he had been smiling, she'd become more protective of him too. Especially after that one horrible memory when he had to watch her die. He would never let her get hurt again. Not if he could help it. And now here he was, in that exact situation. He looked around frantically for her. He'd taken down a few older trolls with Nepeta's help so it was much less crowded. There! She was pushed back in a corner of the clearing trying to somehow melt through the too dense hedge to get away from Darkleer. Oh hells no. She was not going to die again and most definitely not by his own ancestor.   
Darkleer hesitated. This wasn't a troll he had been told to kill. This was just a child, not a threat. Then again... His orders were to exterminate the Signless and his accomplices. Did this count? She had been with them. But not for long and, as far as he could tell, she'd never actually done anything. The little olive girl glared up at him with something between aggression and fear on her face. It really was amazing how similar she looked to the Disciple. He would take her in to be judged. He knocked his arrow and aimed for her leg. That would be sufficient in keeping her subdued. It wasn't as though olive bloods had a record of being dangerous. Just as he released the arrow, something rather familiar jumped in front of the arrow. Rather than hitting it's intended target, the blue point buried itself in Equius's knee, sending him into a kneel. That was certainly a surprise and every bit of it was showing on Nepeta's face. The little troll scurried forward to her moirail's side.  
"Equius..." She leaned closer and tried to see how the damage was. When he didn't say anything immediately, she turned an absolutely murderous glare onto the E%ecutioner, her blue claw tips digging into the ground from clenching her fists so hard.  
"It was his own fault." He informed her.   
She lunged at him, prepared to rip his head off. If Equius hadn't caught her coat in time, it would have been a repeat of the last time. "HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT!! HE'S YOUR DESCENDANT!!!" She was absolutely seething. "HE'S YOUR DESCENDANT AND YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HIM!!" Her coat tore a little.  
"Nepeta." Equius said firmly, tugging her down. They conferred for a moment before Nepeta helped him get to his feet. He was still unbalanced, but he would deal with it. The arrow had hit just below the knee, hitting the bone some, where it had stayed. He would take it out after the fight. Once he had steadied himself, the two took up their familiar positions, ready to take him on.   
Darkleer reached back to get another arrow now that the initial shock of Equius's actions had faded. His hands had to grope for a moment to find one. Why did he have to grope for one? There had been plenty just a moment ago. Almost an entire quiver full. A loud cheerful yet sassy laugh sounded from behind him. It was the Disciple. In her hands were about a dozen arrows, every single one of them broken in half. There was a reason she was so good at stealing Psiioniic's headband. That was three trolls against him and an even more limited selection of arrows. He almost smiled. Finally. A good challenge.   
cl cl cl cl cl cl cl cl cl cl cl cl   
It had started off well. Really well in fact. She wouldn't have expected it really. All her training as a legislacerator and past fights with Gamzee helped indefinitely but that wasn't what surprised her. She could have guessed that she would have been a good person to fight one of the Makaras. She just didn't think that it would have been with the Psiioniic. She'd talked with him some but not really. He was like Sollux only almost worse. He was more anti-social and kept giving her a weird vibe. But in the fight, that all went away. They were good at guessing what the other would do next. If he shot at the brute from the front, she'd loop around and try and get a hit at him from the back. If she was about to get bashed with a juggling pin, he'd send her out of range with his psionics. Can't say she was a fan of that but it was better than being dead. Still this wasn't easy. It seemed like the longer they fought, the madder Grand Highblood got and the faster and more unpredictable. It took everything she could just to stay on her feet.  
That had been at the beginning though. Now was different. Now she was trapped under his foot, trying to get it off, struggling just to breath. If he were to step down any harder, he would cause her chest to cave in. Her cane was somewhere out of her reach, though she wasn't sure where. It was too chaotic. Even though she could see now, it was too much to keep track of. Maybe if she had been blind again, then she could do better. Black spots popped into her vision. Shit. This was bad. The only ones she could even focus on where the Grand Highblood and Psiioniic. The yellow blood was being held up by his head a good six inches off the ground.   
The Highblood's fingernails dug into his scalp and it felt as though he were trying to hold up a bolder with only his forehead. Blue and red sparks flew away from his eyes. Any sane troll would have let him go, but Grand Highblood only leaned in, honked in his face, and squeezed harder. It felt as though his head was going to disintegrate. He could practically hear his skull cracking and bending inwards. Long, skinny fingers clawed at the arm holding him up but it only caused it to squeeze harder. Sparks were flying faster now. This was not going to end well. He could feel the rumble of laughter coming from the indigo blood at the pain plainly etched on his face. With a gasp, his eyes flew open. Everything came rushing out then. All that energy he normally kept pent up came pouring out the first opening it came to, his eyes. Everything dissolved into hues of blue and red.  
Terezi covered her eyes just in time to keep from going blind a second time.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the group prepares themselves for further hell breaking loose-age. I have two things to add onto this. 1. After this, my updates for this story will be even slower as I will be working on Smile. And 2. sorry about all the rearranging. It was bothering me the way it was and I felt the need to fix it.

It took her a few moments to realize what had happened. Why did the ground feel so hard? And more importantly, why was it breathing? The blast sent the Disciple tumbling forward into... Darkleer. Ew. Right on top of him too. She was so close she could smell him. Don't wanna do that again. He guy smelled like hoofbeast and sweat. Gag. Saying that it was better than landing on the ground would be lying. Fortunately, her suddenly flying onto him made him hit the ground pretty hard. Harder than if she had just lunged at him normally. On one hand, she was incredibly worried about Psii. That doesn't happen normally, not even when he's in a fight. He's usually too scared he'll kill someone to let things loose like that. Something bad must have happened. But on the other... that blast probably just saved all three of their asses from getting handed to them by a bow wielding meat head. She took inventory of herself, just like she did after getting in a fight with one of her prey. Everything was attached and in working order. Except... there seemed to be some extra weight in a certain area. She glared at Darkleer. He'd turned into an absolute blueberry and was sweating like a pig. And appropriate response to what she was about to do to him. Nobody touched her there except for the Signless. He removed his hand quickly, appoligising about a thousand words per second and seemed to be wanting to get up. Well hell no to that. Quick as a whip, she brought her fist back and hit him in the face about twelve times. One for each second his hand had been there, adding a little more oomf each time as well. If not for the fact that he was on the ground, letting his head bounce hard against the ground with every hit, she wouldn't have been able to knock him out. Again, good going Psii. This was one lucky break. Plus it felt very good to break his nose.   
Once that was done, she got to her feet to survey what had happened. She, Equius and Nepeta were far enough from the blast that they'd only been knocked back. Nepeta was helping the blue blood to his feet, though she was having some trouble. They were going to have to fix that leg of his. They'd been lucky. Almost everyone else was on the ground. Someone groaned and moved close to the blast sight. It was Redglare's decendant. Which didn't make sense. That close to him, she shouldn't even be in one piece. The Disciple smirked. Guess stick boy managed to at least save his friends. Speaking of... The olive troll darted across the clearing, jumping over bodies until she reached where she'd last seen her Signless. Leave it to her love to land in the most glorious way possible, butt in the air and face in the ground. She grabbed the tail end of his cloak and tugged, flipping him up and onto his back. He covered his face with his hands and groaned.  
"I hate it when you do that."  
"How would you know? I've only done it once."  
"Yes and I hated it."   
She laughed. "Whatever you say hot stuff." Seeing that Dolorosa wasn't far away and her Nubby was fine, she went to help the old rainbow drinker. Behind her Signless rose to his feet and yelled for everyone. A few moans came in response followed by a few more. For the most part it seemed that the lowbloods were down for now as no one lower than Kanaya responded. Hopefully none of them were hurt. But right now it was time to check on Psiioniic. The cat woman picked a trail through the fallen and burnt bodies towards the main tent with Signless following her.   
Psiionic lay in the center of a blackened krater, blue and red spark shooting off every now and then. He was in bad shape. His yellow clothes were torn with black burn marks giving him misshapen polka-dots. He looked like a dropped puppet and she could already see the makings of a huge yellow bruise across his head, which was also starting to swell on one side. She clenched her fist so tight, she drew blood with her sharp claw like nails. Nothing would make her happier than to beat the Highblood's painted face to a freaking pulp for this, but based on the Highblood shaped hole in the tent, Psii had done a pretty good job. The idiot had even lost his stupid headband.   
"He'll be ok." It was Redglare's descendant, Terezi who spoke. She must have caught the worried look on Disciple's face. The olive troll gave her a fang-filled smile.  
"Of course. I doubt he'll ever die." Signless managed to sit him up right but was having trouble moving him. Together with Disciple at his feet and Signless holding him by his shoulders, they managed to get the Psiioniic out of the krater and onto solid ground for Dolorosa to look at. The adrenaline from the fight was fading now, leaving her sore and tired. It'd be nice to have a nap, she thought, stretching her sore muscles.  
"KARKAT'S BEEN HURT!!!" So much for that nap.  
O{ O{ O{ O{ O{ O{ O{ O{ O{ O{ O{ O{  
Tavros woke up to someone, Vriska, kicking him in the side. What had happened? Why did his head hurt so much? And... what was with all this bright red blood? What had happened? He was suddenly very worried about Karkat.   
"Good. You're up." She loomed over him, frowning. A few yards away lay Karkat. Oh crap. One of the E%ecutor's arrows had been shoved into his side. He wasn't able to get anymore detail from where he was, especially when Vriska moved in his line of vision. "Now get up." She nudged him with her boot again. Groaning, he sat up. Wow his head hurt. It felt as though someone put it in a nutrients warming container and set it on high. Spots over colors danced in front of his eyes but his girlfriend hauled him to his feet anyways. He really needed to remember why he liked her so much. It took him a second to steady himself. His back still ached where one of the adult trolls had managed to hit him. He still wasn't entirely used to the fact that they were around so many adult trolls. Was he the only one who felt like that or were the others trying to adjust as well? Ok. Not the time to think about that.  
"You're going to help them fix Karkles while I go raid 8odies." She announced.   
"uH, wHY?"   
"8ecause they might have some awesome loot. Duh." She looked at him like he was an idiot. Which would have meant more if she didn't look at him like that all the time.   
"nO, i MEAN, wHY AM i GOING TO HELP kARKAT? i'M, uM, nOT EXACTLY GOOD AT THAT STUFF." He rubbed the back of his head, a bit nervous. He didn't like to argue with Vriska. She always did a fabulous job at making him feel like an idiot.   
She sighed dramatically. "How many times do I have to tell you Tavros? You're a hero. Heroes help people. And since you don't ever fight, you may as well get some 8lood on your hands the other way. Now go patch up your 8leeding, helpless friend like Pupa Pan would. You do want to 8e like Pupa right?"  
"wELL, tHINGS HAVE CHANGED SINC-"  
"That's what I thought!" She smacked him on the shoulder before running over to the closest body. He rubbed his shoulder where she'd hit him and made his way over to Karkat. As he got closer, he noticed more things. Like Kanaya who was kneeling next to him, trying to stop the bleeding. That's not what he really noticed though. The arrow looked as though it had been stabbed into his side rather than shot and then shoved halfway up the shaft. Now whether the attacker had done that or if Karkat had done that by falling on it, he wasn't sure. Kanaya had pulled out the arrow and was applying pressure. If the red troll had been in any kind of shock, which he probably had, Kanaya had fixed it as the two were now arguing over what to do now, especially regarding Gamzee. Kanaya was all for sawing him in half like she did Eridan but Karkat seemed to have some different ideas. Speaking of the indigo blood, Gamzee lay not far away from the two. He was a lot worse than Karkat. The back of his shirt had ragged holes that were still slightly smoking, revealing ugly burns on his back. Nothing too serious but enough to make Tavros cringe a bit. He almost would have felt sorry for him, if not for what his friend had been planning to do and the bright red blood that smudged across his hand. How Gamzee had gone from harmless stoner to this, he had no idea. It made him incredibly sad.   
Someone tackled him in the side, making him stagger a bit and his body to protest to the new force. Nepeta hugged him for a few moments before letting him go. Behind her, Equius sat a ways away dealing with a big hole in his leg. Ow.  
"hEY," He greeted. She was one of the trolls he had no problem with when talking to. Normally he'd stutter but not with her. She was a pretty awesome friend. "aRE YOU OK?"  
"AC is OK!" She purred happily. "Are you though?" She glanced down at his shirt that was a little crispy for some reason.   
"uH, yEAH, wHAT HAPPENED?" She sucked in a deep breath and he braced himself. Nepeta had one heck of a motor mouth when she wanted to. As fast as she was talking, it only took a few minutes for her to explain what was going on. Unfortunately, as fast as she was talking, he only understood a third of it. Apparently, something had happened the Psiioniic 'clawsing' him to explode, literally. He took out all the bad guys and managed not to murder his friends (plus Gamzee) in the process. Sometime before that when everyone was fighting, Gamzee stabbed Karkat, Equius got shot in the leg by his ancestor, Eridan lost his wand and got himself smacked in the head (Feferi was dealing with him now), Terezi was halfway crushed by the Grand Highblood, the Dolorosa lost one of her swords after getting a deep cut in her arm, Sollux got hit with something in the back causing him to accidentally skim Vriska with his blast, Kanaya got her wrist broken, the Signless stubbed his toe, Feferi broke her nose, and Aradia was still no where in sight. He was still trying to take all that in when she whisked away to go check up on Psiioniic for some reason. A shout from Karkat brought him back.  
"I AM PERFECTLY FUCKING FINE NOW GET OFF ME." He was trying to get up. That wasn't going to work well. He was still bleeding and even if he weren't, he'd lost too much blood anyways. Kanaya let him get up anyways. Based on the look on her face, she was going the tough love route. Just trying to sit up, Tavros could tell his friend was having some serious issues. His face turned scary pale when he did and he looked as though he were about to pass out. Being the stubborn idiot he was though he kept going. At least he tried. He made it to his knees before pitching forward. Well, Tavros couldn't just stand there and let him face plant so he lunged forward and grabbed Karkat before touch down. The troll had passed own again by the time Tavros got him laying down again. What a moron.   
"mAYBE YOU SHOULD, uH, lET ME SEE IF I COULD, uM, sTOP THE BLEEDING?" He asked Kanaya. He really didn't like messing with Kanaya too much. She was a good friend and all but... she freaked him out. The rainbow drinker watched him for a second before nodding.  
"I Do Suppose It Would Be For The Best. I Know I Have No Idea What I'm Doing." She admitted. Somehow he didn't doubt that. So he turned back to his buddy and went to work.  
(V) (V) (V) (V) (V) (V) (V) (V) (V) (V) (V) (V)  
Any time now.  
69~69~69~69~69~69  
Ow. Fucking OW. Karkat groaned and opened his eyes, vaguely remembering what happened after the last time he'd woken up. That fight with Kanaya and trying to stand up and FUCK, he'd actually passed out again like she said he would. Why did she always have to be right. On the plus side, he actually did feel better. Someone had taken his shirt off and ripped it into strips to wrap around where Gamzee had stabbed him. Where Gamzee had stabbed him. The thought made him sick. Even if Gamzee was a nutbag, he'd never thought that he'd actually hurt him. He blamed the Grand Highblood. That guy could not be a good influence. Somehow he managed to prop himself up on his elbow. Whoever had helped him had done a good job. Things seemed to have settled down a good bit with everyone put themselves back together for the most part. Psiioniic was up again, kinda. He was still in pretty bad shape. His head was bandaged up and to get anywhere, he was having to lean pretty substantially on the Signless. The Dolorosa was nitpicking over him now, making sure his head was wrapped up properly, trying to make sure he stayed awake. Disciple was with him too, messing with her- Did she just pull a yellow headband from out of her cleavage? Karkat looked around to see what else was going on. Equius had his leg wrapped up pretty well and Eridan had a headwrap to match Psiioniic's. Feferi was doing a good job of making sure he was ok. Sollux and Vriska were in a heated argument about a burn on her arm with Tavros trying to mediate. And failing. And Kanaya was... Right beside him giving him a glare that could melt faces. He tried to move away, which failed and resulted in him grabbing at his side.  
"It Would Be In Your Best Interest If You Were To Rest." She said almost sweetly which really meant, 'do as I say or I'll bring out my lipstick'.   
"I ALREADY TOLD YOU. I'M FINE." He squirmed in the direction away from Kanaya. Her eyes almost seemed to glint as she brought her heel down onto his chest, effectively stopping his slow wiggle.   
"I Think You Should Rest." He was going to die. Something red flickered at the edge of his vision.   
"KANAYA."  
"Rest."  
"BUT KANAY-"  
"I Said Rest."  
"KANAYA!" She looked ready to stake him to the spot when Dave started talking.  
"S'u... She..." Dave flickered frantically in front of them, much worse than he'd ever been before. Nothing coming out of his mouth made sense. It was just random words. He went back and forth between being his usually cool self and that nervous false coolness he only had when he was terrified. Sometimes he'd do the exact same gesture three or four times much too fast or freeze completely but his words would continue, like when a video was lagging. Some words were complete gibberish because he was speaking backwards. It was as though he were overlapping himself or something. "Down... Guys... Crap... ter... Hur..." Finally he sputtered out. The clearing was quiet. Obviously Karkat and Kanaya hadn't been the only ones who had seen and heard Dave. Even Psiioniic had managed to focus long enough to know something pretty bad must have happened for him to have been like that. Or it was just more time shenanigans. Yeah. Let's hope it was that. The red troll looked up at his friend/captor.   
"WE NEED TO LEAVE." A movement from the pile of rocks that was the Grand Highblood sounded. Karkat could physically feel himself go pale. "NOW."


	13. Chapter 13

After that, going through the maze was interested to say the least. First off, no one had the slightest idea on how to get out of the place. During the fight, everyone had managed to loose all sense of direction, maybe with the exception of the Disciple who had a general direction to go. Right through the thick rose bushes. Because you could absolutely do that with everyone hurt. So Karkat being the amazing leader he was, just picked a direction at random and that's the way they went. Signless was a bit too occupied making sure Psiioniic didn't fall into a coma to take command. So the whole group tromped through the maze in at least pairs of two. Signless and Disciple took turns carrying Psii, who babbled continuously. It was better than him passing out and based on the look on Disciple's face, he was never going to live this down. Equius was using Nepeta as a crutch. How she managed to hold the lug up was a miracle. And Sollux got charged with carrying Gamzee since he was the only one with working psionics at the moment. He kept Gamzee floating a few feet away from everyone else so that if he did wake up, he couldn't hurt anyone. With Vriska and Eridan bothering him every few minutes, he kept dropping the indigo blood. Most were ok with that. Karkat was currently leaning pretty hard on Terezi. The whole blood loss thing left him quiet and tired. An eerie silence settled on the whole group. They were just waiting for the confirmation that the Grand Highblood was alive and on his way to destroy them. Finally, after what seemed like sweeps, they found a second clearing. It wasn't as big as the first one and lacked the terrifying nightmare-inducing carnival tent, but it was a change from the mind-numbing tangle of shrubs that was this maze. And, of course, right smack in the middle sat Aradia looking as happy and cheery as ever.

"Ab0ut time. Y0u guys t00k forever!" She quipped happily.

"WHAT. THE ACTUAL. FUCK." That was the only thing that broke the silence. And, of course, it came from Karkat. No one else could think of something else to say, though, most everyone seemed seriously pissed off. Because how the hell does one react to that. "YOU COULDN'T HAVE HELPED US YOU DICK HAULING GRUB VOMIT? DID YOU THINK WE DIDN'T NEED HELP OR SOMETHING? CAUSE GUESS WHAT? YOU'D BE WRONG ABOUT THAT." The smile on Aradia's face didn't falter as Karkat yelled at her. In fact, she just seemed amused by the whole thing. It did falter however when a loud roar echoed through the air. The Grand Highblood was awake and angry. Shit.

"I think we'd better get going soon." Dave flickered onto the scene, not far from Aradia. He was looking a lot better than he had last time, standing there looking like his usual cool self. He didn't even flicker more than once. It might just have been the best any of them had seen him since dropping into Alternian past. Karkat would have unloaded on his ass two but, again, the whole blood lose wasn't helping anything. Terezi readjusted her hold on him, nearly making him scream. Dammit he hurt. He was going to have a serious talk with Gamzee later. That fuckass.

Despite the fact that they'd finally managed to reach their objective, to find everyone, and it was now time to go back, no one seemed ready. Signless and Disciple shared a look and many of the kids simply shuffled around.

"What happens when we go 8ack?" Vriska finally said. "Does everyone just go 8ack to normal???????? I dunno about everyone else 8ut I'd rather not be dead again." Feferi, Tavros, Nepeta, fuck it, most of the kids seemed in agreement with that statement. Aradia didn't seem to get it.

"I th0ught y0u liked being dead. Y0u g0t t0 g0 0n a l0t 0f adventures, didn't y0u?"

"Well......... Yes. 8ut what a8out these guys???????" She waved at the ancestors. "Do you have any idea the fuck they went through for us???????? Normally, I don't care 8ut in this situation, a captain doesn't leave her crew 8ehind!!!!!!!!" Another statement that many seemed to agree with. Karkat was glad he didn't have to say it. He'd been feeling the same way but a wave of lightheadedness effectively shut him up before he was able to speak up. The Signless seemed to have a different opinion.

"You guys don't need to worry about us. We knew what we were getting into." He said, trying to make his usual hand gestures as he talked. Since he currently had a jacked up psionic on his shoulder, that didn't really work out too well. Disciple was a different matter.

"Signless. We might have known what we were getting into but I don't want to be beat to death in a juggalo maze. We could at least get out of here before they disappear." Her answer was another furious roar from the aforementioned subjuggulator.

"WHERE EVER YOU ARE!" He was getting closer. Karkat looked around the clearing for a path other than the one they'd just come from. Unfortunately, there were none. Of course not. There wouldn't be with their luck. Even with the fact that their doom was slowly stomping closer, many were still reluctant. Another silence settled. They just didn't know what to do.

"Yo guys. I'm sure you're all upset and conflicted about this, but we really have to go and preferably before I get ripped into tiny unironic time bits." Dave gave a little wave as the attention turned on him, as though to say 'yeah. I'm still here.' That seemed to get everyone to accept the fact that this whole fiasco was finally ending. Kanaya and Vriska gave the Dolorosa an à deux, in various degrees of awkwardness. Tavros and Feferi were crowding around the Signless, the fuchsia blood giving him a hug that would make Disciple proud. Speaking of, the cat woman was in a long embrace with her descendant and even gave Equius a small hug as well. She then tried to wipe off as much sweat as she could. Even though Psiioniic was still kind of out of it, Sollux had made his way over to him with Eridan following like an extremely grumpy puppy dog and was trying to do well.... something. It was kind of hard to tell what he was doing since he was absolutely horrible at whatever it was. Gamzee was still knocked out. Karkat didn't really know what to do, so he stayed to one side with Terezi propping him up. After everyone else had made their fair wells, the Signless walked over to them. He was an entirely different troll than the one Karkat had first met. He lacked that strong leader aura he'd given off the first night. In fact, he almost seemed like a doofus, standing there ever so slightly awkward. It was like that persona had fallen away as time passed and Karkat hadn't even noticed until now.

"It was a wonder to meet you." He said at last. Whether he was talking to Terezi or Karkat, neither of them were sure, but it didn't really seem to matter. Karkat didn't respond but Terezi gave a nod and a thank you and dragged them both over to where the others had gathered. In the short while that the Signless had spoken to them, Aradia explained that everyone had to hold onto each other or else they would get scattered like last time. They'd lined up randomly for the most part, with the exception of Equius, whom only Nepeta and Aradia would touch. Even then, they'd covered their hands with fabric. So there was a reason that Nepeta kept the sleeves on her coat so long. The only ones not included were Dave, Terezi, and Karkat himself. Terezi grabbed onto Feferi, not really bothering with Karkat since he was pretty successfully drooped all over her. Aradia and Dave began to do their time stuff when Karkat shoved himself away from Terezi.

"WAIT!!" The entire place seemed to still. "COME WITH US." He could just keep himself steady. So long as he didn't do anything drastic, he would be fine. And, he wasn't sure if it was just his heart beating in his ears but, it seemed like he could hear the Highblood's footfalls now. Signless glanced between the Disciple and Dolorosa before responding.

"We can't Karkat. We wouldn't belong there." This wasn't what Karkat wanted to hear obviously.

"YOU'LL DIE IF YOU DON'T. YOU DON'T- YOU DON'T-" All he could think about was all those stories he'd heard of the Signless. How he became known as the Sufferer and why. Red tears were building up in his eyes and he couldn't stop them. "JUST COME WITH US YOU THICK HEADED SHIT. ALTERNIA'S FUCKED ANYWAYS. NO ONE WILL KNOW!" The Signless simply gave him a small shake of the head.

"Karkat... We're needed here."

"LIKE HELL YOU ARE. YOU DON'T SUCCEED IN THIS, YOU KNOW. YOU FAIL! YOU FUCKING FAIL! AND EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T, YOU'D DIE SOON ANYWAYS. THERE'S NO WAY OUT." The Signless just gave him a sad, pained look, as though he'd known all that all along.

"Karkat. You're just making it worse." It was Terezi. She was reaching out to him but he refused to let her touch him. Not yet at least.

"AND HOW CAN YOU FUCKING EXPECT US TO JUST LEAVE YOU AFTER EVERYTHING YOU'VE DONE. DO YOU REALLY THINK WE'RE THAT SHITTY? JUST COME WITH US. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DIE JUST YET!"

"I'm sorry Karkat. I really am." The Signless started to turn away from him, the final signal that this conversation was over. Karkat reached out and grabbed one of the frayed edges of his cloak. Signless had to tug away from the young troll to get him to let go, and even then it was only because a piece of cloth had torn away. With Karkat free from contact with the Signless, Terezi took her chance and grabbed him. Aradia seemed to know exactly what was going to happen and, before Karkat could react, Dave and Aradia joined forces to launch everyone back through time. Karkat just managed to see the huge, looming body of the Grand Highblood turn enter the clearing before everything turned a red as bright as his blood and then black.


End file.
